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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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kRTOTYPE, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y. 






J± BOOK 



WRITTEN BY THE 



SPIRITS OF THE SO-CALLED DEAD, 



WITH THEIR OWN MATERIALIZED HANDS, BY THE 
PROCESS OF INDEPENDENT SLATE-WRITING, 



MRS. LIZZIE S. GREEN AND OTHERS, 



J±& MEIDITTIYLS. 



ti 



COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY 

C. GK HELLEBERG, 



OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. 



Life is real! life is earnest! 

And the grave is not its goal. 
Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

Was not written of the soul. 

—Longfellow, 







CINCINNATI; 

1883. 






Copyrighted, 1882, 
By C. G. HELLEBERG. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PA.GE 

Introduction and Biographical Sketches of C. G. Helleberg, 
Madam Fredrika Ehrenborg, and Mrs. Lizzie T. Green 1 



CHAPTER II. 
First Investigations with Mrs. Laura Mosser and Mrs. Cooper..., 

CHAPTER III. 

Remarkable Materialization Seance — Letters from Mrs. Erhen- 
borg describing Inhabitants of other Planets 14 

CHAPTER IV. 
Madam Ehrenborg and others Materialize 23 

CHAPTER V. 

Investigations by Mrs. Jennie McKee — First Letter from Eman- 
uel Swedenborg and Communications from Polheim and others 
— Received five beautiful Flowers from Madam Ehrenborg 26 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mrs. McKee passes away and her Spirit arranges her own Fu- 
neral , 33 

(iii) 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Investigations with Mrs. Green — Remarkable dark Trumpet 
Seance, at which I received a most beautiful Flower from my 
Son Emil and Miss Mary Muth , r 36 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Sure Identity of my Eafber-in-Law — Madam Ehrenborg writes 
to me in Swedish : 40 

CHAPTER IX. 

Information of a Spiritual Marriage — The Wedding and the Wed- 
ding Tour to the Planet Mars 45 

CHAPTER X. 

Description of the Journey to Mars, and wonderful Information 
furnished by Madam Ehrenborg 54 

CHAPTER XI. 
Communications from Emanuel Swedenborg 108 

CHAPTER XII. 
Communications from George Washington 141 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Communications from my Son Emil about Ex-President Gar- 
field — Greetings from Madam Ehrenborg — Letter from Rev. 
Goddard and Swedenborg's Answer 157 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Communications from President Garfield, Madam Ehrenborg, 
Governor J. D. Williams, President Abraham Lincoln, Judge 
Edmonds 163 



CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER XV. 

New Years' Greetings from many of my dear Spirit Friends and 

near Eelations 170 

CHAPTEK XVI. 
A Prayer from Madam Ehrenborg 173 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Greeting from Horace Greeley, J. G. Bennett, and Henry J. Ray- 
mond to F. B. Plimpton, Associate Editor of the Cincinnati 
Daily Commercial 176 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Communications from Horace Greeley, Governor O. P. Morton, 
A. P. Willard 180 

CHAPTEK XIX. 

Communications from the Drunkard, a Miser, "William Gailard, 
William Lloyd Garrison, Wilberforce, Tecumseh, a Suicide 187 

CHAPTER XX. 

Communications from Thomas Paine, Margaret Fuller, and 
Thanks of Spirits , 199 

CHAPTEK XXI— APPENDIX. 
Mrs. Green's Medial History 204 

CHAPTER XXII. 

A Visit to Split Kock, Kentucky — Christmas Greetings from Ida 
to her Parents — Annie Winterburn to her Brother, John Win- 
terburn, and his Testimony, and her Farewell to the Medium, 
Mrs, Green 222 



VI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 



A Spirit peels a Banana, eats some of it, and divides the rest in 
four equal parts — Keports of Cincinnati Enquirer about Spirit 
Seances at Mrs. Green's 231 

CHAPTEIi XXIY. 

Extracts from each of two Euneral Discourses by Bishop Simp- 
son and Eev. W. H. Thomas, D.D., with Conclusions of C. G. 
Helleberg , r .... 239 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 



The communications in this little volume, purport- 
ing to come from disembodied spirits, came in the 
manner hereinafter stated, and all that I had to do 
with them was to faithfully and to the letter tran- 
scribe them from the slate on which they were writ- 
ten into blank memorandum books whicla I procured 
for the purpose. Before laying before the reader the 
modus operandi of their delivery, I deem it proper that 
I should give a brief outline of my own history, es- 
pecially do I feel the importance of this since I am 
little known outside of the circle of my immediate 
acquaintances. It has always been my aim in life to 
live uprightly before God and man, and as to the suc- 
cess of this noble purpose, formed in early life, I may 
confidently refer to my neighbors, and many of the 
leading citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, with whom I 
have enjoyed an intimate social and business acquaint- 
ance for nearly forty years. I do not know why I 
should have been made the recipient and custodian 
of the truly remarkable spirit communications con- 
tained in the following pages, except from a long 
lifetime of honest endeavor to do right I was deemed 
worthy, and from the additional consideration that the 

a) 



^ SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

spirits interested in the work knew I would cordially 
co-operate with them in laying the matter presented 
before the world, and that, happily, I possessed the 
pecuniary means to do so. 

I was horn at Grafriset, near Fahlun, in the king- 
dom of Sweden, March 1, 1811, and have now passed 
my seventy-first year. At the age of sixteen I entered 
the Swedish army, and at nineteen became a student 
at Upsala University, where I remained for two years. 
After rendering military service for five years, and 
passing a successful examination, I was permitted to 
enter the civil service of my country. In the capacity 
of land surveyor I served for over ten years, when a 
desire to personally witness the workings of repub- 
lican institutions induced me to make an application 
to travel in foreign countries, which permission I ob- 
tained for the period of two years. In 1844 I left my 
native land for the United States, and in 1845 located 
at Cincinnati, Ohio, and soon thereafter engaged in 
the art of daguerreotyping, and afterwards photo- 
graphing, and in the following year married Miss 
Annie E. Franks, daughter of Frederick Franks, a 
leading and influential citizen of the city, who is still 
remembered as the proprietor of Cincinnati's early 
famous museum. In religion I was raised a Lutheran, 
but at the time (1879) of embracing spiritualism and 
for thirty years preceding I was a devout and earnest 
Swedenborgian. I commenced the investigation of 
spiritual phenomena in 1879, and soon became con- 
vinced of the sublime truths of the spiritual philos- 
ophy. 

As in the following pages the exalted spirit of 
Madam Fredrika Ehrenborg imparts, among other 



INTRODUCTION. 6 

things, marvelous information in regard to the Planet 
Mars, of our solar system, it is deemed fitting that 
somewhat of her history should be made known in 
this connection : 

She was born March 15, 1794, in the Province of 
Wormian d, in the kingdom of Sweden, and at the 
age of seventeen married a highly esteemed noble- 
man, Casper Isac Michael Ehrenborg. He left the 
body in 1823, and was at the time Chief Justice of 
Sweden. Madam Ehrenborg was an. enthusiastic 
Sweclenborgian, and she passed to the higher life in 
the Swedish city of Linkoping on the 20th of May, 
1873. Her life in many respects was an eventful one, 
and largely devoted to literary pursuits. She trans- 
lated writings on religious subjects from several lan- 
guages into Swedish, and wrote books and pamphlets 
in the interest of Swedenborgianism, and visited Eng- 
land, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and France 
in search of materials for her works. It was not my 
good fortune to have met this eminent lady during 
her mortal life, but I happily enjoyed a truly instruc- 
tive and pleasant correspondence with her during the 
last three years of her life in the form. 

I -commenced my investigations in September, 1881, 
with the celebrated medium Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, 
through whose mediumship the most communications 
to follow were written. For ten months I had never 
less than two sittings a week, and the largest portion 
of that time four per week, and have had ample op- 
portunities to study her true character. As the re- 
sult I am justified by the truth in proclaiming to the 
world my thorough conviction of her honesty, purity 
and simplicity of character. Her education, as I have 



4 -. SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

been informed, was sadly neglected in youth., and she 
has had few opportunities to improve in later years. 
She married the Hon. Edward H. Green, of Aurora, 
Indiana, before her eighteenth year, and has devoted 
her succeeding years until recently to the domestic 
duties of life and to the raising of a family, of whom 
only one, a daughter, survives. Her husband served 
with ability a numerous and intelligent constituency 
in the Indiana legislature of 1866-7, and served re- 
cently and to general acceptance two terms of two 
years each as Mayor of Aurora, Indiana, his native 
city. 

The communications of spirits contained in this 
volume were written by the spirits with their own 
materialized hands, and the process was generally as 
follows : A small stand of the ordinary kind in con- 
struction, covered by a table cloth, was used, the me- 
dium placing with one hand under the covering of 
the stand a slate on which was placed a small piece 
of pencil. The other hand of the medium was con- 
tinually exposed to full view, as was also her entire 
form. Both double and single slates were used. We 
heard the writing as it progressed, and when the 
slate was filled it would be indicated by distinct taps 
on the slate and the dropping of the pencil. The 
slate would be then taken out, and as the chosen 
scribe I would faithfully transcribe the written mat- 
ter into the book aforementioned, and the slate would 
then be cleaned and returned under the stand, and in 
this manner all the matter hereinafter set forth was 
produced. I have reported it verbatim et literatim, 
without changing it in the slightest degree, neither 
adding nor taking therefrom a single word. Each 



INTRODUCTION. 

sitting would occupy from one to two hours, and in 
broad daylight. I have taken occasion to preface 
some of these communications with a few lines, by 
way of explanation and to secure clearness of under- 
standing in relation to them. 

This volume is truly a book written by the spirits 
themselves, and whatever merit it may possess, they 
alone are entitled to the credit, and whatever of de- 
merit, if any, they alone are chargeable and respon- 
sible. Of one thing both the mediums and myself can 
truly avouch, and are willing to solemnize with our 
oaths, namely, that we had nothing whatever to do 
with the production of the communications except 
so far as we may have aided the communicating in- 
telligences by furnishing them with the necessary and 
.required conditions. 

I launch forth the work not, however, without 
misgivings as to its reception and fate in this age of 
incredulity and skepticism, and my only hope is that 
it may be instrumental in doing good, if but only in 
a feeble degree, which alone will be ample compensa- 
tion for my time and labor. 

Carl Gtustaf Helleberg. 

177 Auburn street, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER II. 

My investigations of spiritualism commenced with 
the excellent medium, Mrs. Laura Mosser, now Mrs. 
Carter, through whose mediumship I had the first 
slate- writing, August 31, 1879, at her residence, "No. 
253 Laurel street, Cincinnati, Ohio, from my spirit 
friend, William Gailard, and my dear son Emil. My 
truth-loving friend, Mr. S. G. Anderson, at my re- 
quest, introduced me to Mrs. Mosser, at her residence, 
where we both on a clear Sunday morning, after we 
had some communications between a double slate 
from Mr. Gailard and my son, saw a spirit hand be- 
tween us, into which Mr. Anderson put his handker- 
chief, which was taken under the stand, and after- 
wards came out tied in three knots. It was written 
on the slate at the same time that Mr. Anderson's 
two sisters and his brother John, avIio all many years 
ago had passed away in Sweden, each of them had 
tied a knot. During this occurrence we had Mrs. 
Mosser in full view, who was rocking in a rocking 
chair, and the only part hidden was her right hand 
when it held the slate under the small stand. From 
this remarkable result I concluded to go on with the. 
investigation, and had many interesting communica- 
tions, mostly concerning family relations, until the 
8th of December, 1880, when I became acquainted 
with that most respectable lady, Mrs. Annie Cooper, 
who is a true and honest medium. Through her gifts 
I had many wonderful manifestations, consisting of 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 7 

slate-writings and materializations, etc. I will men- 
tion only a few. On the 11th May, 1881, among other 
things which appeared on the slate was the following : 
" Good morning, my dear friend. Across the deep 
I have communicated to yon. With great pleasure I 
accept the opportunity of still doing so. I am anx- 
ious that all I hold dear should understand this phe- 
nomenon. Hope lingers around me that I shall be 
able to make myself known as if on earth. One thing I 
thank you for, the kind appreciation of a small tribute 
of friendship I tried to bestow. Every clay since I came 
here I have learned something. Knowledge is not stop- 
ped by the change. My friend, many persons think that 
when the change called death comes and the spirit is 
released from the body, it becomes perfect at once. 
That is a mistake ; we come out of the earthly body 
with all the propensities which actuate us while in it, 
and we come out of them only as we are educated and 
progress. Oh, dear friend, I can see now that there 
are many human beings dazed at the wiles of mis- 
takes made by early education, instead of looking up 
to something higher and brighter. Yes, man still asks, 
with prayerful heart, what are his wants to be in the 
future ? and why was he born ? and why does he die? 
Oh, why does man mourn over a law that was or- 
dained for the benefit of all mankind ? Why tears 
fall when he stands where the form of some loved 
one is laid ? Is hope gone ? Yes, because they know 
not where they are gone and what they arc now. aSo 
one should mourn at death, for death is as legitimate 
as birth. Yes, no science, with all its bright knowl- 
edge, has been able to penetrate this system or sphere 
peopled by those who once dwelt as you do now. Oh, 



8 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

if suffering humanity could realize these beautiful 
truths, it would remove every doubt and dispel every 
fear that death transports man far away from earthly 
loved ones. My dear friend, to you this knowledge 
has been like a gentle zephyr that cools the cheeks on 
a warm summer evening. I am happy to be able to 
see you in possession of these noble sentiments. Let 
eternal progression be engraved on your banner and 
you will soar far above doubt and mystery, that sur- 
round so many in earth life. Man no longer bows 
to an angry God, nor needs a mediator to propitiate 
him. I am so happy to be able now to enjoy and 
fully realize what I believed to be true, with but lit- 
tle besides my own evidence and knowledge to con- 
vince me that it was a truth. I have been reproved 
even for an acknowledgment, but all do not under- 
stand alike. I was fully assured before my spirit left 
the physical habitation for spiritual inheritance that 
I was surrounded by angels, kind and loving, guard- 
ing and guiding me to a higher and better life, I 
passed through as if in a gentle slumber, awakening to 
meet many bright faces, yes, too many to number, 
that had gone before and landed safely on the bright, 
celestial shore. Earthly views can not comprehend 
-heavenly joys. Oh, think of it, my friend, to meet 
those to whom you are bound to by the ties of nature 
in early affection, never, never to part again, but to 
dwell in the light of a harmonious atmosphere of love, 
surrounded by angels and music from the bright 
realms above. There is no end to life, the spirit is 
eternal, and as we travel onward we can look upward 
in hope, for there is always something above. I will 
be able to communicate to you on different subjects 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. V 

the next interview. Give my love to your dear lady. 
I will now call on her, and we will yet meet, but not 
as strangers. In the language of flowers, we remem- 
ber in the sweet forget me not.* Adieu for the pres- 
ent. Your most sincere friend, 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

This was the lirst communication between the 
double slate from Madam Ehrenborg, and on the 19th 
of May she gave another one, as follows : 

" Good morning, my dear friend. In love and jus- 
tice for your kindness I come this morning. I feel 
like writing on that subject, justice, for it enters into 
the divine unfolding of eternity. Millions stand at 
the bar of the great tribune waiting to hear their sen- 
tence pronounced. Justice enters into the majesty of 
universal law. What generation can gather it and 
hold it in •their embrace ? Yes, justice is the univer- 
sal law, that no age, no nation can control or hold in 
subjection. When they have gained one step in the 
right direction they may then think they have gained 
it all, but as we ascend the steps to that mighty throne 
of infinity we see justice beyond the ken of hundreds 
of humanity that have passed away. Justice is so 
unlimited we can compass only a part of it, according 
to the knowledge we possess, and have cultivated the 
principal subject of the development. ISTo people or 
nation can make laws to govern any other nation or 
people who can succeed them or figure on this planet. 
What can finite man do to control the Infinite ? Can 
he gather and control the winds and the seasons as 

*This has reference to forget-me-not seeds which she sent me from 
Sweden. 



10 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

they come and go with all their powerful influ- 
ences on the globe? No ; neither can he gather and 
control the developments of minds, or subject them 
to any law that he may enact. History records the 
rise and fall of empires ; behold, they have all passed 
away ; each gives place to another form of govern- 
ment, better adapted to the wants and conditions of 
the then existing humanity. Dear friend, the heav- 
enly trees are rilled with divine fruit, whose beauty 
is reflected to earth. Truth is mightier than man, 
sharper than a two-edged sword, and it will mow 
down every obstacle in the way of progress. The 
spirit world is united in trying to lay the corner-stone 
of a temple so large that it will contain the whole 
human family. Oh, how grand when all can ofTer 
up the highest tribute of love to the divine unfold- 
ing spirit, and receive the sacred knowledge and love 
which shall bring humanity together in peace and 
harmony, then in truth all will be free. It gives me 
renewed strength to see the new and beautiful ideas 
floating about, spirit messengers wafted to earth, blend- 
ing with man, woman and child as they go forth 
clearing the pathway to their eternal home, where all 
is love and harmony. The light of this beautiful 
truth is fast dawning, and suffering mortals will 
awake in joy to the light of it, and be crowned in the 
glory of the morning. It is not hard for spirits to 
communicate with friends on earth, but often difficult 
to have conditions. Man must have some spirituality 
in his soul before he can realize the truth that his 
loved ones are waiting, willing to help him upwards 
as they stand on the bright, celestial shore. Dear 
friend, I am sure I am gaining power, and would be 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 11 

able to say a great deal in a short time through this 
medium if no change of conditions come. I hope to 
help you to do what you so much desire. I can go 
to my dear friends across the water and help you by 
impressing them that all is true. I\ T ow I must with- 
draw, but will be very happy to come again to you, 
and give you all the knowledge I can. I am glad to 
see you so interested in learning what can only be 
taught by those who have passed the sands of earth 
life, and are happy exploring the unexplored field of 
life beyond. Good by, go on, fear not, the course you 
pursue is right. Your true friend in spirit life, 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

On the 24th of May, from 9 to 12 a. m., the same 
highly esteemed spirit friend wrote on the slate : 

" Good morning, my dear friend. I greet you this 
morning, united with so many of your loved ones. 
Your beautiful mother says it would not be heaven 
if we were shut out from the knowledge of our friends 
in the form, i^o, it could not be heaven if it made 
us selfish. I am glad you have reached that part of 
life and find bright rays daily. Freedom brings its 
own reward, and the light that has been given to you 
will enable you to have yours while life lasts. You 
will never be bereft of friends on this shore. You 
will have them in both spheres. Is it not grand to be 
able to understand, and even more, to appreciate, this 
knowledge? Light is pouring in, and the minds of 
men are becoming more active every day. Mankind 
are like hungry children who want food; yes, so great 
do they crave the knowledge of the immortality that 
it will take firm reasoning and true workers to sup- 



12 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

ply them. "We rejoice, for we are sure that progress 
is rapid. Earth friends often wonder what spirits 
find to do. If they could realize even half the won- 
derful work that is going on, they would be aston- 
ished that spirits had accomplished so much for the 
welfare of humanity. I am so happy my soul expands 
in love. I feel I am young, and I am, for I am born 
again. I am contented to have struggled so many 
years in earth life, for it has brought me grand reward. 
All trials are worth the privilege and. pleasure we en- 
joy when we reach our spirit home. I can see now 
that it is no hiding-place in man's true nature, and if 
they are not learned upon the terrestrial planet, they 
will have to learn before they can become celestial 
angels. Selfishness is cold and freezing, love is genial 
and warms up the human soul, and thereby will pro- 
mote its happiness. Let love be cultivated by man, 
for it is a favorite flower, the flower of life and the 
beauty of the soul, and by it humanity is renewed 
contin ually and brought to the newness of life's beauty, 
truth, beauty and higher spheres of eternal existence, 
and without it man can never understand or have any 
conception of his heavenly home. Oh, if love were 
the ruling influence, sorrow would be hard to find, 
heart aches would be nowhere felt. An early writer 
said : ' If you can not love him whom you have seen, 
how can you love them whom you have not seen and 
be beloved in return ? ' In loving one another we 
love Grocl, for God is love. His love is manifesting in 
man. Oh, that it may be cultivated, and not destroyed. 
Dear friend, I feel I have given you an introduction 
at least in my three letters of what I believe would be 
a benefit to man if they could but understand how 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 13 

much depends upon them, not alone for themselves, 
but for the welfare and happiness of others. I will 
be able, as conditions are given, to write of my sur- 
roundings in my beautiful home, where all is love and 
harmony, peace reigns and all willing to submit to the 
ruling power. You have done more good than you 
are aware of. It is the greatest workers that always 
feel they are doing least. You send forth subjects 
that give new ideas to those who read them, awaken- 
ing interest without any desire on their part. As I 
said before, if conditions are not interrupted, you will 
have much to read and to write. I have said all on 
this subject that I can, but I am not at a loss for some- 
thing more to write about, for in spirit home how 
many beautiful things that have never yet been talked 
about too glorious to be enjoyed without giving the 
knowledge of their existence to our earth friends ! A 
circle surrounds you this morning of loved ones near 
and dear, and your mother is cherished in loving kind- 
ness by children, children's children. Emil is a bright 
spirit, and will be able to give much knowledge to 
those who are a great deal older. Dear friend, I must 
withdraw and obey the law that governs my comings. 
All looks well for you so far as I see. No one can be 
really happy until their spirit is free to enjoy that 
happiness which is permanent, for all earthly pleas- 
ures are but temporary. Farewell for the present. 
In God's love may you continue your journey until 
you arrive on the mount where no dark ravines can 
intervene your happiness. Good bye for the present. 
Your sincere friend in spirit life, 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 



14 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER III. 

REMARKABLE MATERIALIZATION SEANCE — LETTERS FROM 
MRS. EHRENBORG AND OTHERS DESCRIBING INHABIT- 
ANTS OF PLANETS. 

Iii the evening of the same clav I was at a mate- 
rializing seance at Mrs. Cooper's, where the following 
persons besides myself were present : Mr. Cooper, his 
wife, Mrs. Annie Cooper, the medium ; Dr. Joseph 
R. Wittemore, No. 50 Dayton street ; John "Winter- 
born, No. 19 Freeman avenne ; Mr. Oberline, Mr. S. 
G-. Anderson, and Mr. Charles Wilhelm, all of Cin- 
cinnati. 

First, Mrs. Cooper sat herself in full gas-ligbt by 
the small covered stand, under which was placed 
three bells, a walking stick, and my small spring 
music-box, after I had wound it up. Soon after the 
spirits moved the box up and down and put it on end 
during playing, which we could see, because I put the 
box only half under the curtain. As soon as the 
playing stopped, the box was taken entirely under 
and finally pushed out for me to wind up. The bells 
were ringing and the walking stick was held up and 
extended to all of us to take hold of, which we did, 
and the spirits shook hands with us in that way. 
I had laid Madam Ehrenborg's photograph on the 
table, and I expressed a wish that she would mate- 
rialize, when on the slate, which Mrs. Cooper held 
under the table-leaf, was written : " Good evening, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 15 

friends ; yes, 1 am with you ; I will try to appear ; 
we are so happy." The gas was now turned down, 
but not lower than we could see each other right 
well, and Mrs. Cooper took her seat in a chair behind 
the curtains stretched across a corner of the room, 
and soon after a lady spirit greeted Dr. Wittemore, 
who, he said, was his first wife. His sister also came 
and nodded to him. Then came a sister to Anderson 
and a sister to Mr. Winterborn, together with his 
mother, who took a flower from him, and nodded to 
him very cordially. A spirit lady did the same to 
Mr. Wilhelm. Mr. Cooper brought now my music 
instrument, orgamina, from the upper room and placed 
it before me and I played on it with the crank. Soon 
after a lady spirit came, dressed in a white shining 
robe, and beckoned to me, when Mrs. Cooper, who 
was not in a trance, invited me to come up to the 
curtain where the spirit stood in the opening, and I 
asked if it was my friend Madam Ehrenborg who 
died in Sweden, Europe, eight t years ago, and she 
bowed and nodded assent. Mr. "Winterborn gave me 
a flower, which I took and offered to Madam Ehren- 
borg, who took it, smelled it, and stuck it under my 
nose to smell, and afterwards kept it. I expressed 
my gladness to see her and she made graceful bows, 
which I answered with mine. I then w^ent back to 
the music instrument to play, when Madam Ehren- 
borg came out again with a beautiful long piece of 
lace on her arm and wafted it to and fro, and after- 
wards dematerialized before us. After that came a 
lady and sat herself in the rocking-chair, and there 
dematerialized before us. Mrs. Cooper took now a 
standing position in the opening of the curtain, when 



16 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

a male spirit came out, stood beside her, and kissed 
her. When Mrs. Cooper took her seat behind the 
curtain again a tall gentleman spirit came dressed in 
some kind of a uniform, with a glittering star on his 
right breast, and Mr. Winterborn offered him a nose- 
gay, which he took and held out with his hand, 
swinging his arm up and down, keeping time to 'the 
music of the orgamina and that for a long time. As 
he came out the next time he took hold of the rock- 
ing chair outside the curtain before him and swung 
it over his head for a long time, and afterwards low- 
ered it clown to about a foot from the floor, when he 
dropped it. At the same time we saw Mrs. Cooper, 
who expressed her anxiety lest the chair might fall 
on her. Next he placed himself at the opening of 
the curtain, when a lady spirit took her place at his 
left side, and they kissed each other. Mrs. Cooper 
asked for a glass of water, which Mr. Cooper went 
after, intending to give it to his wife, but the gentle- 
man spirit took it from him and gave it to Mrs. 
Cooper, who drank the water out of the glass. The 
same spirit sat himself in the lap of Mrs. Cooper and 
kissed her after he had placed a flower in her hair. 
Mrs. Cooper was coughing, and Mr. Winterborn gave 
two cough lozenges to the spirit, who gave them to 
Mrs. Cooper. The uniformed gentleman spirit came 
again out and took the rocking-chair with his right 
hand and swung it very vigorously over his head for 
a good while, then put it clown. All the other spirits 
had white robes shining as snow, and all of us were 
exceedingly gratified at such wonderful performance. 
The 29th of June, 1881, among other valuable com- 
munications, came : 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 17 

Good morning, my dear friend ; it is with the 
greatest pleasure I again come to communicate with 
you. Your star of hope is increasing in brightness. 
I called on you and your dear lady last night (your 
night). You appreciate the beauties of the heavens, 
it was indeed grand to the natural eye." (My wife 
and I last evening were on the roof of our house on 
Mount Auburn looking at the comet and the stars.) 
" Oh, I thought if I could lift the veil and show you 
the inner life so brightly beaming once again, what 
joy it would give. I have visited three planets, each 
one had a distinct race (of people) and different one 
from another, and had mostly white skin, walked 
erect, were all of the same physical shape, very much 
like the inhabitants of our planet ; their features are 
more regular and not much contrast in size. On the 
first planet they were small in stature — about four feet 
high. On the second sphere, about five feet high and 
of uniform size and shape. On the third they were 
six feet high, with large limbs and muscles, language 
quite different from ours, but were highly educated; 
eat no animal food, subsist entirely on vegetable. 
The day and night are of equal length; and as this 
last named planet was most interesting to me I will 
speak first of it : They have a better system of 
astronomy than we do and understand it more per- 
fectly. This planet has large water courses and a 
great deal of commerce. They have no religion, such 
as Christians call religion, but a very high order of 
morals. They know little of the immortality of the 
soul. They have no wars, no courts nor prison 
houses, and murder is unheard of. They have no 
kings, no politics, no religion, consequently no wars. 



18 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

They live in perfect harmony; women suffer very 
little inconvenience in bearing children ; the families 
are large, with eight or ten children; they are con- 
tented and happy. They have better painters in col- 
oring in both landscapes and portraits. Their archi- 
tecture is perfection; their buildings are the most 
beautiful I ever beheld. The climate is genial the 
year round, never too hot, and never necessary to 
have fire to keep warm ; but little variety in temper- 
ature. Dear friend, I could say much more if I had 
power. I thank you for your kind attention. I will 
be able another time. Good bye for the present. Your 
sincere friend in spirit life, 

Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

The 27th of July at a seance at Mrs. Cooper's, her 
control informed me that Ave meet to-day under dis- 
turbed conditions, and when I asked Mrs. Cooper 
what that meant, she said her husband wanted her 
to move back to Louisville, as his prospects there now 
were better, and she had concluded to do so, in conse- 
quence of which she intended to pack up her furni- 
ture immediately after the present seance. Madam 
Ehrenborg wrote now a communication from which I 
will extract the following : " This dear, good woman, 
whom the angels will bless, is the first channel 
through which I have been able to reach earth and 
friends in this way, and now to be disturbed and 
taken away for a while is a loss to us. I could go to 
her, but not write as I write to you, the friendship- 
formed between us before I passed away gives me 
strength and desires I might not have in any other 
way, but this form of condition will not last long. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 19 

* * * I w iH try to communicate to you whenever 
condition is given, it is so easy for me to write here. 
There are but few who I could say so much through 
in so short a time. * * * Mrs. Cooper, it" you will 
sit for me next Wednesday from there (Louisville) I 
hope to be able to write frequently, but not like if he 
was present. Good bye for the present. Your most 
sincere friend in spirit land. 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

Mrs. Cooper promised to do as she was requested 
and we agreed, as the spirits wanted, that I at the 
the usual hour, 9 o'clock a. m., should sit alone at home 
the same time as the seance should take place in 
Louisville. "Wednesday, the 3d of August, I picked 
a few flowers and kept some of them with me, as my 
spirit son EmiL directed, and the rest were placed in 
a glass on the stand, which was covered, and under 
it I put Madam Ehrenborg' s photograph and her let- 
ters sent me from Sweden. The 5th of August I re- 
ceived a letter from Miss Sadie Hare, 'No. 222 St. 
Catherine street, Louisville, Ky., wherein she states 
that " Mrs. Cooper came quite a distance to our home 
the 3d of August to fulfill her engagement with you 
and the dear spirit friends, not having conditions at her 
sister's that would enable her to give opportunities to 
the spirits. We live a long distance apart and some 
distance from the street railway, but you know the 
distance would have to be very great to prevent Mrs. 
Cooper from keeping a spiritual engagement. . * * 
With this you will find your communications which 
I have copied. Respectfully yours, 

" Sadie Hare." 



20 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" Louisville, August 3, 1881. 

" Yes, we see the photographs of our clear friend, 
and he has obeyed the request made. We wish we 
could bring just one of the white blossoms he has 
gathered for the occasion to you. The dear spirit 
friends he desired to hear from were present when he 
made preparations for conditions to assist them to 
come to you. Tell him all will be well with him. 
The knowledge he lias gained of the spirit world will 
not decay like the blossoms he has gathered in his 
beautiful bouquet. His friend Doc." The control of 
Mrs. Cooper. 

" We have come, and see that you have had a long 
distance to come to make conditions for us. Emil is 
with me, and we will do all we can to write a message 
to my dear friend C. G. Helleberg. I have reached 
the medium through which I have been able to write 
so much in so short a time. I find her much troubled 
and disturbed and will not be able to say to you what 
I could if you were present as in former conditions, 
but remember what I have told you., my work in 
spirit life has only began, and I yet hope to say much 
to you and through this medium. All the changes 
that come to our friends in the form are not pleas- 
ant for them, but changes that come to us in our spirit 
home increases the happiness and joy that we dwell 
in, but not alone, for there is no real happiness that 
can be enjoyed alone, for we are united in love and 
harmony, and we are happy that the change called 
death does not sever the friendship formed in earth 
life. Progression is the highest ambition of all good 
spirits. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 21 

" Man does not see or know the need of knowl- 
edge while in earth life, but when he enters real life 
and knows there is no turning backwards he feels 
forced, by law of goodness to help all those who are 
yet in darkness; but, my friend, there are so many 
who are forgotten as soon as the spirit has left the 
form and believed to be dead by all they once held 
dear. I feel like repeating over and over again the 
joy I continually receive, being remembered by you 
who have opened the avenue for me to give and re- 
ceive. Be assured that your reward will come and 
inscribed in bright, shining letters on a banner of 
truth — your work well done, good and faithful serv- 
ant. Emil is present, and desires to send a few words 
to his papa and mamma. I know, my dear friend, 
how you missed the interview this morning you 
would have enjoyed so much ; but be reconciled, 
they are more disturbed than our dear medium ; but 
could she behold the bright spirits that stand in circle 
around her she would not despair. It will not be 
long till the way is cleared and we can draw nearer 
to communicate through her to you, and of every 
thorn comes a blessing, the severest cross is a crown 
to those who are willing to bear for the sake of truth 
and progression. I desire, my dear friend, to have these 
interviews repeated. Had there not been a kind, 
genial lady to sit for you to copy what was written 
I would not have been able to say this much in a 
strange place. I thank you, my young friend, for as- 
sistance and willingness on your part, and remember, 
though the act may seem small to you, it is worth 
gratitude from us, and you may rely upon an increase 



22 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

of spiritual influence to assist you. Accept this, my 
dear friend ; I hope to say more again. Your most 
sincere friend in spirit life, 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 23 



CHAPTER IV. 

MADAM EIIRENB0RG AND OTHERS MATERIALIZE. 

I received several other valuable letters of my spir- 
itual friends from Louisville, and in one of them, the 
18th of August, Madam Ehrenborg wrote : 

" A request has been made for Mrs. Helleberg to 
write a letter to her sister Emma and her father, that 
it may enable them to remain -long enough to com- 
municate that she may hear direct from them, for they 
are often with her, and want her to know it is not 
wrong for them to come or for her to look for them." 

In consequence of this I persuaded my wife to write 
a letter to them, which she did, and I sealed it up 
with red sealing wax, with my seal on, and sent it by 
mail to Mrs. Cooper, without any superscription. On 
the 25th of August we received a letter from Miss 
Hare and Mrs. Cooper, together with my wife's sealed 
letter unopened, and a long and beautiful letter from 
her spirit sister, Emma, who had also answered for 
her father, which was so true and striking that her 
fear melted away, and concluded to investigate these 
strange facts. In October, Mrs. Cooper revisited Cin- 
cinnati, during which time my wife and I had several 
very satisfactory seances, and on invitation from her 
we were present at a social materialization seance on 
the 28th of said month, in the evening, in company 
with the following persons : Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, 
Miss Sadie Hare, Mrs. Gano, Mr. and Mrs. Green, Mr. 



24 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

Cooper's mother, Mr. and Mrs. Macky, Mr. and Mrs. 
Nicely, Miss Sneider, Mrs. Artzman, Dr. Taylor and 
Mr. Wintcrborn. A curtain was stretched across a 
corner of the room, and the small stand was put on 
the floor, and under it was placed two call bells, a big 
brass bell, and a drum, with sticks and a walking stick. 
When Mrs. Stebbins played on the violin, or we sung 
or played on the orgamina, the spirit skept time with 
the bells and drum. The walking stick was pointed 
to different individuals of the company, who had 
mental questions answered when they took hold of 
the uplifted stick. Mr. Stebbins put the end of the 
bow under the table,. and the fiddle he laid on the 
floor, about a foot from the table, when the spirits 
played on it. The table was also lifted up and clown, 
keeping time with our music When Mrs. Cooper 
took her seat behind the curtain soon after, several 
spirits materialized to many of their relatives and 
friends, who recognized them, among whom were 
Miss Mary Muth and Madam Ehrenborg. I and my 
wife went up to the curtain, when Miss Mary Muth 
touched my wife's hand and took a flower from her. 
Afterwards Madam Ehrenborg came in fall form, 
dressed in a fine dark suit, with a black lace cap, and 
when my wife asked if it was Mrs. Ehrenborg, she 
nodded her head smilingly several times, and then 
dematerialized. We took our seats, but Madam 
Ehrenborg came again twice, when I went up to the 
curtain with Mr. Stebbins, who also saw her very 
plainly, how she nodded to me and kissed my hand, 
which was touched by her lips, and had a warm feel- 
ing. She afterwards dematerialized before us. At 
the same time this took place we saw and conversed 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 25 

with Mrs. Cooper, who is never in a trance state at 
any time. When we came home we examined Madam 
Ehrenborg's photograph, and we found her dress and 
eve iy thing else apparently exactly the same as that 
in which the photograph was taken. Her features 
were also the same. I had seen her materialized sev* 
eral times before, bnt always in shining white robes, 
and now she took on the same garment as that worn 
when the photograph was taken, probably to convince 
my wife of her identity. 



26 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER V. 

INVESTIGATIONS BY MRS. JENNIE M'KEE — FIRST LETTER 
FROM EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, ETC. 

After Mrs. Cooper moved to Louisville I made ac- 
quaintance with Mrs. Jennie McKee, a real lady of 
high moral and truthful qualities, who had wonder- 
ful medial gifts, and permitted me to come to her 
residence, No. 47| Sherman avenue, Cincinnati, for a 
slate-writing seance weekly, every Thursday, from 9 
to 11 A. m. The spirits wrote independent, in broad 
daylight, when she held the slate under the stand, 
which was never covered with any thing, and with a 
pencil so small (about one-eighth part of a common 
wheat grain) that no human fingers in the body could 
write with it. I commenced with her the 4th of Au- 
gust, 1881, and continued until she passed away to 
the higher life, the 17th of November the same year. 
During that time I received many highly valuable 
and remarkable communications and gifts, of which 
I will only mention a few. On the 8th day of Sep- 
tember there appeared among other communications 
on the slate the following : 

"My friend, I come from a higher sphere of light 
and truth, in compliance with your request, and I greet 
you this morning in God's most holy name. I will 
speak to you not as I would have done when inhab- 
ited in earth form, but with a more expanded vision, 
and the more profound knowledge and the clearer 
understanding of the fundamental laws and govern- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 27 

ing principles of the Great Ruler of the universe. 
In those days in which I wrote it would have been 
a very unwise and dangerous thing to' have given 
these spiritual manifestations to the people, from the 
fact that they were not prepared to receive the bless- 
ings, and the ultimate desire for the amelioration of 
mankind would have been defeated, and the result 
would have been disastrous." 

I had wished a clearer understanding about our 
guardian spirits, and on the slate came : 

" At the time of birth there are two self-constituted 
guardians, one from the light sphere and one from 
the dark, and as the child advances toward maturity, 
the number is greatly increased ; but whether good 
or bad, depends entirely upon the persons themselves. 
Thus, for instance, if man leads a life of depravity 
and vice, he naturally attracts spirits of a like char- 
acter; on the other hand, if a man leads a moral life 
of purity, bearing in his heart love and good will to 
others, he is surrounded by pure spirits, who are at- 
tracted by those elements. Thus, my friend, you see 
how essential it is, both for happiness here and 
through all eternity, that you conduct yourself so that 
the pure spirit of love can come and minister to you. 
I must leave, but will shortly come again." 

Here I said to Mrs. McKee : " If he signs his name, 
I would like to have the slate, so I could show it to 
my wife;" and he said to her (but I could not hear 
him) : " Put a paper on the slate." I cut a leaf from 
my annotation pocket-book, and we put it on the slate 
loose, and Mrs. McKee held the slate, with the paper 
and a short lead pencil on it, under the table, and on 



28 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

the paper, now in my possession, was the follow- 
ing: 

" Dear heart, so true to my memory, my blessing 
with you, Emanuel Swedenborg." 

On the 13th of October, at a seance by Mrs. McKee, 
from 9 to 9:30 A. M., the following communication ap- 
peared on the slate : 

" My beloved, I am with you, and I greet you with 
my blessing in the name of the Most High and Rul- 
ing Power, and not only is it I who bless you, you 
have attracted to you a number of highly exalted 
spirits, who love you for your singleness of purpose 
and purity of heart, with which you are promulgat- 
ing the teachings you receive from us ; that is why 
you have been selected by us, because you have been 
upright and moral in your life ; because those who 
wish to investigate would be more impressed than did 
the communication come from other sources. Fear 
not, we will be with you, and each word will have 
weight. You must expect to be criticised and doubted ; 
but again I say, fear not, we are with you, and will 
turn the thought of the people. We shall eventually 
see our efforts crowned with success. We appaal to 
the senses; it would be a vain and useless thing to set 
up a higher authority than man's own conscience, for 
that is the last final tribunal at which he is judged. 
The errand of life, the education, unfolding and 
strengthening the combination of the mind, the exi- 
gencies of business, the duties of citizenship, the 
cares of the household, all this requires the utmost 
seriousness of purpose and activity ; but activity is 
neither in the development of manhood. It is far 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 29 

more essential that the mind and moral nature should 
have careful cultivation. Man should not care so 
much concerning the short period of natural life. 
From this side, through us who live by deeds, not 
years, in thought and feeling, instead of figures on 
the dial, by the happiness we produce, is our only 
gauge of time. There is an embodiment of selfish- 
ness underlying the human family which will first 
have to be eradicated through education, and it is the 
desire of the spirit world that man should be a brother 
to his fellow-man. I go now, but will be with you as 
often as I can. I leave my blessing for you and your 
household. Swedexborg." 

" My friend, I come to say how much I enjoy and 
sympathize with you, that those who were blind are 
beginning to see, and are in better condition for the 
reception and appreciation of the spiritual blessing 
which are being prepared for you and yours by the 
loved ones who are gone before. I have brought my 
dear life companion with me this morning, who is 
working with me in acquiring the knowledge which 
will be necessary for you in the fulfillment of the mis- 
sion you have been selected for to give out the knowl- 
edge of this glorious philosophy. It is the truth, for 
it is vouched for by the testimony of every atom, 
every bright world you observe in the firmament, and 
lastly by the spirit of the past man made perfect. ! 
You may be called fanatic, but if spiritualism is fanat- 
icism, it is of more value to mankind than the whole 
circle of the sciences. We are called away now, but 
will come this evening. Fredrika." 



30 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" Dear papa, there is much joy and rejoicing among 
your spirit band. I am so happy that I can come to 
dear mamma, and have her receive me as you do. 
Kiss her for me. The power is too far gone to write 
any more. Emil." 

On the 20th of October, 1881, between 9 and 11 a. 
m., at a seance with Mrs. McKee, the following com- 
munication appeared on the slate : 

" Oood morning, my friend. I am here, and greet 
you with my love and my blessing as the one chosen 
by me to help me in correcting the teachings I have 
put forth, and which at that time were not clearly 
understood even by myself, consequently I failed to 
render myself sufficiently intelligible to be properly 
understood by others. 'Now these mistakes must be 
rectified, and the erroneous impression replaced by 
the truth. I am preparing rny statements, and they 
will be given to you in proper time through the chan- 
nels we have chosen. I have chosen you as my as- 
sistant, well knowing your loyalty, steadfastness of 
purpose and your fearless disposition, so like what 
my own was, so it would be a matter of perfect in- 
difference whether you received commendation of the 
people or only arouse their condemnation. It was 
this prominent characteristic which proved the at- 
tractive power that has drawn me to you. I ask no 
one to give up their principles ; I simply desire to 
place truth before them, and let each individual rea- 
son according to the light surrounding him. Surely 
truth can defend itself, so we will let it speak for it- 
self. I am happy and content with my surroundings, 
but I come to bring to the children of my love, the 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 31 

people of the new church, more light, if they will 
only receive it. I am impressed more fully each time 
I revisit your earth sphere that, had I lived at the 
present day, my labors would have been understood 
and appreciated, and I should not have felt that my 
best efforts were but a sad failure in comparison to 
what I expected or desired. I am now called away, 
so I now leave for this time, but will be with you 
soon. Good bye. God bless you and yours. 

" SWEDENBORG." 

On the 27th of October, 1881, at Mrs. McKee's, Swe- 
denborg gave me a short communication, both on 
slate and paper, and afterwards came : 

" Good morning, my friend, Swedenborg has been 
called away, but he has brought me to say a word and 
to assist in promulgating the truth. Many high and 
elevated spirits are banding together to spread the 
truth. Polheim."* 

On the 3d of November, 1881, I had a seance with 
Mrs. McKee, and after the slate had been under the 
bare stand for about ten minutes a tap was heard, by 
which sign it was taken out from under the stand, 
and five exceedingly beautiful, fresh flowers, giving 
out a delicious perfume, were on the slate, and little 
dew drops had made some wet spots under them. On 
the slate was written the following : 

" Good morning, my friend. I bring you some flow- 
ers. Let them convey to you the dearest essence of 

*This Polheim was Sweden's greatest architect, mathematician and 
builder, who projected the canal between Stockholm and Gottenburg. 



32 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

the high power to produce. They are the handiwork' 
of God. In them we see His ever living presence. 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

Afterwards the following communication appeared : 
" Good morning, my beloved. I am again with you, 
weighty with rich blessings for you and yours, and I 
come also with a heart overflowing with love, tender- 
ness and gratitude, that I am permitted, through' the 
goodness and wisdom of the most High Power, to re- 
turn, and through you, my trustworthy assistant, give 
my thoughts and ideas to the people. We love our 
mediums, our channels and our doorway, through 
which we come to love and bless. Take no heed 
of any unkind remarks, it is only an evidence of ig- 
norance. Keep straight on, turn neither to the right 
nor to the left, continue to scatter seeds by the way- 
sides, which will furnish food for thought, and thought 
will lead. to investigation. Investigation must neces- 
sarily lead in the acknowledgment of the truth. You 
can not expect to convince at once — it must be the 
work of time — and bear in mind, no one ever yet 
sought to benefit mankind who was not placed under 
the dark ban of suspicion. As you say, nothing can 
be gained by denunciation. Keep on. My blessing 

With YOU. SwEDENBORG." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 33 



CHAPTEE VI. 

MRS. m'REE PASSES AWAY AND HER SPIRIT ARRANGES 
HER OWN FUNERAL. 

"When the seance was over, I at once took the flow- 
ers to Mrs. Minor's to have them arranged according 
to her art for preservation and now have them in all 
their original beauty. The 17th of November, 1881, 
I went to Mrs. McKee for a slate-writing seance, as 
for some time I have been used to do every Thursday 
morning at 9 o'clock, where I met at the door her 
step-father, R. J. William, who informed me that his 
daughter Jennie had, half an hour before, passed 
away to the spiritual world, and invited me up on 
the floor above to see her body. In the death-room I 
found my friend, the wonderful clairvoyant and trance 
medium, Mrs. Anna Rail, and Jennie's mother, who 
found that her head was not quite cold. From the 
house of mourning I went to Mrs. Minor's for the 
five ilowers I had received from my dear spirit friend, 
Mrs. Fredrika Ehrenborg, through the medial power 
of Mrs. McKee, the 3d of November, and which now 
were preserved under glass, and afterwards went to 
have a seance at Mrs. Green's, where I placed those 
beautiful ilowers on the small stand between us. Soon 
we heard writing on the slate and a tap, when we 
found on it the following communication : 

" Good morning, dear papa. How sad for you to 
look upon the face this morning, not yet cold, that 



34 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

had afforded you so much, real happiness, and pure 
as the flowers before you that came through her 
medial powers. She entered the spirit world to meet 
the loved ones gone before. Her suffering is no more. 
She saw you, audi shook hands with her. She knew 
me, and she was all smiles. She was glad she passed 
away on the morning she had an engagement with 
you ; so your heavenly influences was there to aid her 
spirit. She hoped for it. She will be able to com- 
municate to you soon and tell you how she found the 
new life. She will write immediately, she under- 
stands it. Dear papa, try to make a house not of 
mourning; she wants joy, she is free from suffering 
and able to communicate. Will see her own funeral 
and wishes to have a real spiritualist's funeral, be- 
coming one who has passed away in its full faith. 
She wants Mrs. Green to repeat that beautiful poem 
that she so much admired : ' I Still Live ' (herself). 
I would like Mr. Green., with others, to make some 
consoling remarks. The song ' There is no death/ sung. 
She says that every thing so far has turned out all 
right, and she wants every thing done according to 
her desire. They all know what a devotee she was in 
spiritualism." (Here I mentioned to Mrs. Green that 
I would go back to the house of mourning and tell 
them of this as soon as possible, and now came.) 
" That is just it. She told me all and requested me 
to write it. She wants them to cast away the 
thoughts of her old body from their minds, and to 
think her free spirit moving through the house as of 
old. She wants her dear old parents not to mourn. 
She wants all the mediums next to her immediate 
family, and spiritualists, to strengthen her so she can 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 35 

manifest, if possible. She says this is her wisnes ; they 
can do as they please. Dear papa, I have clone my 
duty this morning for her beautiful free spirit, and 
happy for the honor conferred upon me as her aman- 
uensis. We have nothing more to communicate this 
morning, only she wants Mrs. Rail, her near and dear 
friend, to control affairs as far as she can, as she knows 
her wishes and desires, and knows she will please her 
and do what is right. Love to dear mamma ; kiss 
her for me. Emil." 

" Mrs. McKee says many thanks for your kindness 
She will be with you often. Much love to all. 

" Emil." 

We were present at her beautiful funeral, where 
Jennie herself spoke through Mrs. Rail over her own 
body, and it was in truth remarked from the people 
that this was the most soul-uplifting funeral services 
they ever had witnessed. The spirit communicates 
with me often. 



36 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

INVESTIGATIONS WITH MRS. GREEN — REMARKABLE DARK 
TRUMPET SEANCE AT WHICH I RECEIVED A MOST BEAU- 
TIFUL FLOWER FROM MY SON EMIL AND MISS MARY 
MUTH. 

My investigations through the excellent medium, 
Mrs. Green., commenced the 2d of September, 1881, 
and I received many interesting communications from 
my dear and near relatives, which I value very highly, 
but naturally would not have the same value for the 
general reader, and therefore I deem it best to ex- 
clude most of them and take in only writings from 
exalted spirits who are more generally known. 

The 19th of September came : 

" From the higher sphere of light I come 
To teach you the beauties of our home, 
And to impart to you the golden truth 
And make you feel its real worth. 

" And to my dear old friend, your wife, 
I wish to prove a future life, 
And to assist her while she remains here, 
And help to guide her to our heavenly sphere. 

" Oh, the beautiful birds that sing their lay, 
Come to bless me every day, 
The flowers of fragrance, sweet and rare, 
And heavenly music fills the air. 
" From your friend, 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 



.: 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 37 

The 20th of October, 1881, I was present at Mrs. 
Green's trumpet seance in the evening in company 
with the following persons: Mr. Green, the medi- 
um's husband ; Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, a reporter from 
the "Enquirer," who gave his name as Johnson, and 
Mr. Walker. On the stand was placed three slates, 
one of which was my own, three trumpets, one glass 
of water, and my spring music-box. On the floor 
stood the big tin trumpet and by it laid my guitar, and 
not far from Mr. Stebbins was his fiddle. After the 
light was put out and the doors locked I wound up 
my music-box and put it on the right hand corner of 
the stand before me. Soon after it was taken away 
while playing and carried around all over our heads, 
and some of us were touched with it. Finally it came 
back to me and was placed in my left hand with the 
spirit, whose hand I touched with both my hands. I 
wound it up again and the spirit took it away and 
carried it around the same as before, but when it 
came back it was placed on the left hand corner of 
the stand, and I laid the key close by it. Afterwards 
I played my orgamina when the spirit voices of both 
sexes joined in with their songs, and so they did when 
we sang. 

I intended to wind up the music-box again and 
felt for it on the corner, when I discovered that both 
the box and key were gone. Soon after we heard 
the box playing and going over our heads as be- 
fore, and the box was replaced on the corner of the 
stand with the key on top. All the trumpets and 
the guitar were moving around in the air high above 
our heads, the guitar was played on in time with the 



38 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

music, and we all were touched and stroked on dif- 
ferent parts of our bodies with these implements. 
The guitar was laid in my lap, and I sang a Swedish 
song, accompanied by the guitar, when we heard a 
spirit voice singing with me, and I and the others 
heard the words pronounced by the spirit, which I 
declare were the same Swedish words which I sung. 
Mrs. Stebbens was clasped around her neck by her 
spirit daughter Ida, who whispered to and patted 
both her and Mr. Stebbins. Mrs. Green and Mrs. 
Stebbens saw several spirit lights, and Mr. Walker 
was informed by striking and tolling on the 'big tin 
trumpet that his father in Kansas would soon pass 
away. I felt for my music-box again, intending to 
wind it up, when I, to my great surprise, found a 
fresh, beautiful flower on top of it, and my slate was 
placed in my hand. Soon after the seance was closed 
and when the room was lighted up, we found written 
on one slate the name of the reporter, and on my 
slate the following: 

" Dear papa, we present you the flower we prom- 
ised you some time ago. The passion flower. 

" Emil and Mary." 

It was a large, very beautiful, quite fresh flower, 
which I now have preserved in a glass jar with de- 
odorized alcohol. On seeing this flower my wife's 
idea was that the flower had been brought from some 
garden, and I thought the spirits made it, which 
caused me, at a si ate- writing seance the 24th of Oc- 
tober, to ask which of us was right. On the slate 
was this answer : 

" Mary and I, with the assistance of the medium's 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 39 

band, created it for you and dear mamma, and you 
will find a dove in the center." 

On a close examination we found to our astonish- 
ment a small dove there. 



40 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SURE IDENTITY OF MY FATHER-IN-LAW — MADAM EHREN- 
BORG WRITES TO ME IN SWEDISH. 

On the 8th of December, 1881, 1 and my wife had a 
slate-writing seance in the forenoon, and were present 
in the evening at a trumpet seance with Mrs. Green, 
and as my w T ife received a strong convincing test 
through the name of her father, it is necessary before 
relating the facts to make a short sketch of a part of 
his life. He was a Swedish nobleman , named Otto Jacob 
JsTatt och Dag, who, by the favor of the dethroned King 
Gustaf Adolf the Fourth, was educated in the mili- 
tary academy, and afterwards served as officer in a 
rank regiment in Stockholm, which the new King 
Charles the Fourteenth, Johan, the former Napoleon's 
General Bernaclott, looked upon with great favor. 
This young nobleman wrote an anonymous book about 
reorganizing the Swedish army, in which many good 
and necessary reforms were proposed. This book was 
not intended for sale, but a few copies had been 
printed for his intimate friends. Some of his so- 
called friends reported this, and mentioned his name 
to the King, who became enraged that a young of- 
ficer should dare to have the impertinence to inter- 
fere with his business, and want to teach him, who 
had such a vast experience in military affairs, the con- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 41 

Sequence of which was that he was transported to 
serve in a common infantry regiment, far up in the 
northern part of the country, a long distance from 
his near and dear relatives. Such treatment natu- 
rally made him feel bad, and he asked permission to 
travel in foreign countries, which he got, and went 
straight to Baden, in Germany, where he called on 
his former King, Gustaf Adolf, and was kindly re- 
ceived. There he republished his book in the Ger- 
man language, with some additions, which the Swe- 
dish minister reported to the King, who then consid- 
ered him a traitor, and ordered his arrest, but his 
Swedish friends informed him of this in time, and he 
went to America under the name of Frederick Franks, 
which was the name of a German student, who gave 
him his passport, and which he afterwards adopted and 
used until his death. The King, Charles the Four- 
teenth, had him adjudged, unheard and absent, by a 
court for high treason, for daring to pay a visit to the 
dethroned King, and the judgment was that he should 
lose his place and rank in the army. Many years after- 
wards the King regretted his harsh and unjust treat- 
ment of his faithful, patriotic and skillful officer, and 
pardoned him, and ordered his Swedish minister at 
"Washington to inform him of it, so he could go back 
and enjoy all his privileges ; but his former guard officer 
had now been for many years a republican citizen, 
who, with his artistic and many other talents and busi- 
ness capacity, had made himself independent, and he 
never went back. Nobody here but the family knew 
any thing of his Swedish name, and my wife said to 
me that she would be more fully convinced of her 



42 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

father's identity if he would sign himself with that 
name. 

In the slate- writing seance in the forenoon I had 
put my own slate, which Mrs. Green never touched, 
under the side of the stand nearest me, and on Mrs. 
Green's slate the following appeared : 

" Put out the slate and see if any thing is on it ? " 
I did so, and on my slate the following sentence 
appeared : 

" God bless you both is the wish of your exalted 
friend, • Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

Among other things was the following : 
" Now, dear papa and mamma, we have done all 
we can this morning. Much love to you both. Grandpa 
will be with you to-night ; Grandpa Helleberg, Mary 
and Julia, too, Emil, Gustaf and Charley. You will 
have many bright and beautiful spirits with you this 
evening to cheer you on your road to the beautiful 
spirit world. There all are in peace and happiness — 
Emil, Frances, Emma, Mary, Julia. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg." 

On the evening of the 8th of December, at the 
above-mentioned trumpet seance were present, besides 
me and my wife, the following persons : Mr. and Mrs. 
Stebbins, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Catherine Kem- 
lin, Mr. and Mrs. Green and Mrs. Boggs. We had 
spirit singing and talking, with many other remarka- 
ble manifestations. Among the spirits who spoke 
were Garfield, Washington and Lincoln, three ex- 
Presidents. Two slates were put on the table by Mr. 
Green before the light was put out, and I had that 
afternoon bought two very small silica slates, of which 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 43 

I gave one to my wife, who held it in her hand, and 
the other, in the dark, I put on the corner of the table 
nearest me, which nobody else knew any thing about. 
When the seance was over several names and mes- 
sages were written on the two big slates, and on mine 
was the following on both sides : 

" My Dear Daughter — Oh, how happy I am that I 
have found a way to communicate to you. I will be 
with you often. " 0. J. N". D." 

On the other side appeared : 

" My Dear Daughter — According to promise I am 
with you. I have many things to tell you. With my 
heart full of love for you, 0. J. X. D." 

These were the initials of my wife's father's Swedish 
name, Otto Jacob Xatt och Dag, and we were highly 
pleased with the result. Subsequently he communi- 
cated often, signing his name in full, as above. 

On the 23d of March, 1882, at Mrs. Green's, among 
other communications, was the following : 

" Dear Papa — All of your Swedish friends are here, 
and intend to use their influence to-day and give you 
a surprise before the seance is over. All are present 
except Swedenborg, who we expect very soon. We 
are not sure of success, but we intend to try. The 
surprise will be Grandpa Franks trying to communi- 
cate inside of the double slate, with your assistance 
holding the slate and all of your friends influence 
combined. Madam Ehrenborg withheld her message 
to-day to add her strength and help grandpa with his 
surprise to mamma and you. * * * Swedenborg 



44 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

has come ; get the slate. This is all you will get from 
me to-day. Your loving son, Emil." 

We cleaned the doable slate and put it under the 
table, where I held on to one end of it and pressed 
the two slates together with my hand, while Mrs. 
Green held the other end, and we both felt and heard 
the writing going on inside the two slates. The 
writing continued about ten minutes, after which a 
tap was heard, when I took the slate out, opened it, 
and in my father-in-law's handwriting found the fol- 
lowing communication, which I had photographed 
and electrotyped as seen opposite : 

On the 23d of July, from 9 to 11 a. m., at Mrs. 
Green's, I had cheerful writings from our three sons 
and grand-daughter, Julia Muth first, and afterwards 
there appeared on the slate the following communi- 
cation in the Swedish language : 

" Dyra goda wan C. J. Helleberg ! Jag prsenterar 
dig min Hdgaktning och evinnerlig wiinskap. 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

Which, translated into English is: 
" Dear, good friend C. J. Helleberg, I present you 
my esteem and eternal friendship. 

. " Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

I had it photographed, as shown. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. . 45 



CHAPTER IX. 

INFORMATION OF A SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE — THE WEDDING 
AND THE WEDDING TOUR TO THE PLANET MARS. 

For a long time I had regular slate-writing seances 
in the light and one dark trumpet seance every week 
at Mrs. Green's residence, Ho. 309 Longworth street, 
and at that time were generally present the following 
persons : Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, Mr. and Mrs. Tay- 
lor, Mrs. Remlin, Mr. and Mrs. Helleberg, all of Cin- 
cinnati, and Mrs. Bogg, from Newport, Ky. In these 
trumpet seances the spirits not only played on musical 
instruments, which they carried over our heads, and 
very often touched us with them and their. hands, but 
talked and sung to us with or without the trumpet. 
The 12th of January, 1882, our son Emil astonished 
us with the information that he was going to marry 
Miss Ida, the spirit daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Steb- 
bins, and that she would be his spirit wife: In a 
slate-writing seance, the 16th of January, he informed 
me that Mr. Swedenborg would perform the nuptial 
ceremony, and who also had determined the wedding 
to take place on Washington's birthday — the 22d of 
February. We w r ere also informed that the spirit, 
Mr. Henry Pieman, Ida's cousin, would be the 
groomsman, and the spiritual Miss Alary Muth her 
bridesmaid, and that a bridal trip had been arranged 
in which many bright and exalted spirits would take 
part, including Madam Ehrenborg. Mr. Swenden- 
borg would make the wedding speech on the spiritual 



46 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

side, and he requested Mr. Green to make one on this 
side. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, me and my wife, agreed 
that this remarkable wedding ceremony should take 
place at Mr. Stebbins' residence at the appointed 
time — the 22d of February — and we concluded to ask 
the spirits who we should invite, and the 16th day of 
February, 1882, came on the slate the following names : 
" Pa and ma Stebbins, papa and mamma Helleberg, 
Mr. and Mrs. Green and daughter, Mrs. Emma Muth, 
Mrs. Remlin, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Miss Nettie Will- 
iams, and Mrs. Keenan. Emil and Ida." 

At a slate-writing seance, the 20th of February, 
came on the slate, among many other communica- 
tions, the following : 

" The ceremonies are to begin at four, and imme- 
diately after congratulation, supper. It will take one 
hour, Mr. Swedenborg says, to show the medium 
the ceremony and Mr. Green's address. When the 
vision is through, then Mr. Green, then supper, and, 
after that is settled, a trumpet seance. Emil." 

According to this arrangement the above persons 
were all invited and present, except Mrs. Keenan and 
Miss Nettie Williams, who could not come, at the 
afternoon and evening seances the 22d, the 150th 
anniversary of Washington's birthday. In the after- 
noon we assembled at 3 o'clock p. m., and at 4 Mrs. 
Green was in full trance, and Swedenborg controlled 
her and blessed the contracting parties, after which 
Mr. Green made a very appropriate and beautiful 
address. A private clairvoyant fell in a trance and 
described not only the clothing of the bride and bride- 
groom, but many other spirits present. The bride's 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 47 

dress was pure, sparkling white, frosted with gold 
dust, with long train full of the finest lace, and a very 
beautiful veil, frosted also, and adorned with a hand- 
some wreath on her head of white flowers set with 
three beautiful diamonds on her forehead. She had 
also a diamond brooch and necklace, with a splendid 
ring on her linger, and slippers on her feet to match. 
Our son Emil had knee-breeches of royal purple, with 
a beautiful white toga frosted with gold, and gold 
tassels and a purple and gold crown set with dia- 
monds. (At a subsequent seance Emil said : " Mine 
was Mr. Swedenborg's selection, Ida's was Madam 
Ehrenborg's.") During the trance state of Mrs. 
Green, the spirit "Winnie described the dresses in the 
same way as the private medium already had told us. 
After we had had a splendid repast the requested 
trumpet seance was arranged, at which all were pres- 
ent, and had the pleasure of being spoken to by 
Swedenborg, Emil, Ida, and many other spirits, and 
some of them patted us with their hands. Madam 
Ehrenborg and my wife's father, Otto Jacob ^att-och- 
Dag (Frederick Franks), sung Swedish with me, and 
Mrs. Jennie McKee took my hand and lifted my arm 
up and putting it over the table so I had to rise. It 
was a beautiful and most satisfactory and wonderful 
manifestation over which Ave all were highly de- 
lighted. 

The 23d of February, 1882, came from our spirit 
friends the following : 

" Good morning, dear papa, we are here yet, but 
will immediately after this sitting start on our bridal 
tour, accompanied by Swedenborg and a great many 
exalted spirits. AYe expect to return by next Thurs- 



48 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

day, then Mr. Swedenborg will give the marriage 
ceremonies, and we hope to have something nice to 
write you then. Mr. Swedenborg is very much 
pleased because he is able to speak and control Mrs. 
Green, and was very much pleased also with the way 
it was conducted on your side. He says altogether 
it was a splendid affair on both sides, and I think so 
too, and now I will let my wife, Mrs. Tela Helleberg, 
write. Your loving son, Emil Helleberg." 

" Good morning, dear papa Helleberg ; Emil makes 
me blush when he says my wife. It used to be a 
joke, but now it is a reality, and that is quite differ- 
ent. When we all meet on the evergreen shores of 
the summerland, then we will return the compliment 
and have the infair at our own home, no matter how 
far off it may be, you shall always receive our hos- 
pitality and our love in the cottage. With my heart 
full of love for you and dear mamma Helleberg and 
sister Emma, and my dear pa and ma, and Mrs. 
Green's family, I bid you good morning. 

Ida Stebbins Helleberg." 

" Good morning, Mr. Helleberg : I was very much 
delighted with the exercises of yesterday afternoon 
and evening. It could not have been more perfect 
on both sides. I was with you all the time. It was 
witnessed by thousands of spirits with much interest 
and delight. Whatever Mr. Swedenborg does in the 
spirit world causes great commotion and interest. He 
is in the spirit world like some of your great men 
here, a leader. His every word, look, and gesture, is 
chronicled by the spirits; therefore you may imagine 
the interest they manifest towards him. Nettie could 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 49 

not and would not leave mother. She is so lonely 
without me, but she was here heart and soul in spirit. 
With my highest regards for you all, I am your friend, 

Jennie." 

" Good morning, my dear friend : As the marriage 
of our grand-daughter to your son has united my 
son Edward and your family, and that event caused 
or rather brought us in a positive condition, and en- 
abled us to pick up the trumpet and manifest our ap- 
preciation of that event, I thought I would write a 
few lines in regard to this happy marriage, and to 
show our very high appreciation of this medium's 
family, for, as Ida said, it has brought sunshine to her 
dear pa and ma that they could not find any-where 
else outside the spirit communion, and express our 
very high appreciation of your son Emil, and that 
we feel very proud of them both, and of our hearts 
full of love for Edwin and his wife, and highest re- 
gards for yourself and family and Mrs. Green's fam- 
ily, we subscribe ourselves your dear spirit friends, 
" Amariah Stebbins and Permelia Stebbins." 

" Good morning, my friends, Mr. Helleberg and 
Mrs. Green: To say I was very much delighted, or, 
in fact, I have not language at my command to ex- 
press to you my appreciation of yesterday's proceed- 
ings, and happy of the opportunity presented that I 
can write to-day. Winnie described me as I was. 
Love to my dear daughter and her husband (Edwin 
Stebbins), and regard to all, Thomas Kelly." 

" Good morning, dear son : Father, brother, and 
all of us are here to give you our congratulations and 



50 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. ' 

to tell you how much we love dear Ida, and that she 
is so sweet and beautiful. We were all with you last 
night, and caressed you with the trumpet. It made 
us so happy. Father can not write to-day, but will 
soon. With our blessings on you and all, your loving 
mother, Ulrica Helleberg." 

" Good morning : I must not fail to give a few 
words in appreciation of the marriage feast. It was 
splendid, and I was very much pleased with the cere- 
mony spiritually and mortal. Love to clear Anna 
and yourself and highest regard to all. Francis, 
Emily, Susan and Joseph join me and send much love 
to all. With my prayers for you all, 1 bid you good 
bye. ' Fredrick Franks." 

" Now, dear papa, we are all through, and Guthof 
and Charles join in congratulations, and asked me 
to write for them, and tell you that they are so much 
pleased with their sister-in-law. Mary, Henry, and 
little Julia and Clarence, and many that I have not 
time to mention, join us with much love for all. Two 
souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat 
as one, we bid you good bye, Emil and Ida." 

The 2d of March came : " Good morning, my dear 
friend. The tourists, according to promise, have not 
returned. I have been sent as a messenger from Mr. 
Swedenborg to report to you that their reception on 
the planet Mars was so grand, and they are there so 
nicely entertained by the spirits of that planet that 
they have all been invited to participate in a similar 
feast to take place to-day, and they all send their 
love and best wishes to you, and hope to be with 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 51 

you at your next sitting. With my highest regard 
and well wishes for your future prosperity, I am your 
spirit friend, Polheim." 

The 6th of March the exalted Swedenborg wrote 
on the slate: " Good morning, friends: I am here 
to give you the marriage ceremony I promised in" 
pantomine on the 22d ultimo. It is brief, and does 
not include the address and prayer given on that oc- 
casion. * * * As you have already been united 
in the conjugal sense by the operation of the laws of 
spiritual attraction and magnetic affiliation, no formal 
cementation or consecration is needed, but in obedi- 
ence to an ancient custom, originating in spirit life 
in the early dawns of the physical earth-planet, and 
from thence projected to mortal life, I have the pleas- 
ure of pronouncing the ceremony that blends you, in 
obedience to the custom stated, into blissful spiritual 
consociation as man and wife, which I now do in 
presence of the invited guests here assembled. In 
blissful happiness you are to live in peaceful joy, to 
move in heavenly love to act, so shall your onward 
march be unobstructed, and as you advance increas- 
ing in wisdom, expanding and abounding in love, 
and augmenting in power until the highest angels 
and seraphims shall claim you for angelic companion- 
ship. Now, while the choristers join in thy mar- 
riage anthem, I present for your congratulations this 
spiritually mated couple, who I now introduce as 
Emil Gabriel Helleberg and Ida Stebbins Helleberg. 

Emanuel Swedenborg." 

.last as Madam Ehrenborg's communications were 



52 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

being copied for the printer, the " Banner of Light" — 
the oldest spiritual paper in existence — of date July 
1, 1882, was placed in my hands, in which I find a 
communication from Helen Barnard Densmore, of 
Philadelphia, in which she says : 

" Philadelphia has been favored recently with a 
course of lectures from Mr. W. J. Colville, which 
have been well attended and received with apprecia- 
tion. This truly inspired speaker is doing a great 
work in spreading the new gospel of spiritualism 
wherever he is called. His discourses are of a high 
order, in an intellectual and literary sense, as well as 
of great spiritual elevation. At one of the social re- 
ceptions given to him at the residence of Colonel S. 
P. Kase, he gave a very interesting discourse on the 
physical life and development of the planets of our 
solar system as compared with the earth, which was 
listened to with an earnest attention and evident ac- 
ceptance by those present. It was taught in this dis- 
course that worlds were brought into existence for the 
sole purpose of furnishing a theater for souls to ex- 
press themselves in matter upon, to the end of gain- 
ing knowledge and overcoming temptations in all 
forms and of all kinds; that these lives make up a 
system of embodiments which closes with the soul's 
triumph over all the evils to be found in material life. 

" We were told that in Mercury the attainment of 
a high degree of physical perfection was the highest 
ambition of its inhabitants ; that that planet was in 
a lower state of animal, vegetable and spiritual pro- 
gress than the earth, and the cultivation of the soil 
was their almost universal occupation ; that Venus 
was in a high state of artistic and aesthetic cultiva- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 53 

tion ; that art and music were the dominant passions 
there, with less intellectual and spiritual development, 
sensuous delights every-where abounding, and the 
cultivation of the beautiful the highest aim of life. 
On the earth the demon to be overcome was declared 
to be intellectualism, man's intellect being here wor- 
shiped and deified at the expense of the spiritual. 

" On Mars and Jupiter is to be found a much higher 
state of existence, matter being dominated by the 
spirit to a much greater degree than on either this 
earth or those planets nearest the sun ; that exalted 
spirits from those planets, especially from Mars, are 
sent as especial embodiments to the earth, as teachers 
and messengers for spiritual truth. 

" Life on the more distant planets from the sun, be- 
yond Jupiter, was declared to be of such an exalted 
character that there is no language understandable on 
earth in which to depict its glories and achievements." 



54 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER X. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE JOURNEY TO MARS, AND WONDERFUL 
INFORMATION FURNISHED BY MADAM EHRENBORG. 

" March 9, 1882. Our party of tourists, after having 
been carefully selected in accordance with their abil- 
ity to utilize the magnetic currents that connect the 
planets in our solar system, and their adaptability to 
the electric and magnetic condition of Mars, whither 
we were bound, started on the journey at, according 
to yonr time, midnight, February 23. We proceeded 
without any incident of note until we reached Maluka 
Plains, where we met a party of excursionists on a 
visit to our planet earth. Maluka Plains, named after 
a great prophet of Mars, are located many millions 
of miles from the circling magnetic belts of earth, and 
immediately adjacent to the outer circle of the electro- 
magnetic atmosphere of Mars. We were surprised 
to find that these excursionists were acqainted with 
our guide and leader, Mr. Swedenborg, for he had 
frequently visited the most interesting points of our 
stellar system. He had even been at Mars in spirit 
while he was in the body of flesh, but he finds many 
things quite different from what he thought he had 
discovered during his spiritual visits when embodied. 
The party we met were on a tour of scientific explo- 
ration, and gladly availed themselves of information 
imparted by Swedenborg and Polheim, and we in re- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 55 

turn were greatly aided by data and imormation fur- 
nished by them to us. While this conference, or rather 
exchange of information, was in progress a courier 
was dispatched by our newly-made acquaintances to 
the spiritual magnates of Mars concerning our com- 
ing. I shall here stop and defer a description of our 
first reception until our next sitting. 

" March 13. As we entered within the magnetic ra- 
dius of Mars, and were emerging from the outer into 
the inner concentric circles, so characteristic of that 
planet, we met a reception committee of several thou- 
sand, and after formal greetings, we were escorted to 
a magnificent edifice, where were in waiting innumer- 
able throngs of spiritual dignitaries and others to 
receive us. I here desire to remark that in my use of 
words I resort to your own vocabulary, for the thought 
language of the Marsians is quite different from the 
sound of v our words, and to employ their terms would 
only confound you and militate against your proper 
conception and understanding of the narrative. For 
instance, I use the word edifice to indicate a structure, 
but they use an entirely different term and form of 
expression, and so on ad infinitum,. The edifice refer- 
red to I am unable to describe, and it can only be fully 
understood in thought. In dimensions so great that 
your city of Cincinnati could be settled in one corner 
of it without attracting but very little attention. The 
material of which it is composed has no fitting repre- 
sentative on earth in its present state of development. 
Your diamonds and precious stones are as dim and 
unreflecting in comparison as a cloudy, murky day of 
autumn is to a bright summer day with the sun at 
meridian and the horizon unobstructed by cloud or a 



56 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

single mist. This comparison may serve to give you 
some idea of the absorbingly intense brilliancy of the 
mammoth structure, yet this is of itself but as a mote 
in the sunbeam to what I am assured exists in the im- 
measurable immensity of the higher creations in the 
inconceivable and boundless universe of God. Oh, 
how diminutive is this little ball of matter called 
earth, when we only measurably take in the vast im- 
mensity of the infinite domain of God. And poor, 
puny man, what a mere speck — a mere infinitisimal 
animalcule. As we approached this mammoth struc- 
ture, it seemed to be tremulous with motion, and the 
motion, superinduced by such intensely penetrating, 
soul dazzling strains of music as to perfectly appal 
with ecstatic emotion our enraptured tourists. But 
for the preparation of us for it by the scientific spirits, 
who they called the Ulaetta, we could not have with r 
stood it. I will give you this process of preparation 
on some future occasion, and I am sure it will be in- 
teresting to you and valuable when you come over. 
The ceremonies of reception were performed, not in 
speech, but in musical opera, which, singular to state, 
we were enabled to understand by the preparation 
mentioned. When I say musical opera I do not mean 
singing accompanied by music, but that the music 
itself was intensely operatic, and infused thought by 
the most astonishing and utterly inexplicable process 
into our interior soul consciousness. It was some- 
thing worth years of suffering and pain to enjoy, and 
in contemplating its inconceivable grandeur I return 
to my own sphere, feeling how little I am, and to 
weep for the children of earth, still in ignorance and 
superstition, and I lift my voice in prayerful suppli- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 57 

cation to God to rend the veil, that poor humanity 
may obtain even faint glimpses of the gorgeous splen- 
dors of God's great kingdom; but I seem to hear a 
voice answering, Not yet ; wait and be patient. 

" March 20. We observed the most singular fact 
connected with the edifice wherein we were received. 
In approaching it we were unable to penetrate into 
its interior with our vision. It seemed to be a solid 
mass of exquisitely fine material, but on gaining ad- 
mission into its interior, by some peculiar power that 
seemed to affect our spiritual vision and perceptions, 
we were enabled to see through and beyond it, and 
to perceive objects in the far distance. In other words, 
the whole structure seemed to vanish so far as to per- 
mit no obstruction to our vision far beyond its lim- 
its, and yet it were thoroughly substantial, composed 
of finely attenuated and spiritually sublimated mate- 
rial. I have so much to tell you that I must forego 
the pleasure of indulging in details, however inter- 
esting they might be to you. 

" The presiding personage at our reception was a 
figure of tall and commanding appearance, with a 
benevolent face, dignified mien, and large blue eyes, 
that seemed constantly tremulous with love and emo- 
tion. He held* in his hand a magic wand, which ever 
and anon he would wave, and in harmony with these 
movements the most enchanting sounds of music 
seemed to be wafted far out in the viewless spiritual 
ether that surrounded and enveloped us. This won- 
derful fact baffles the skill of mortal pen and mortal 
language to describe, and you must be content with 
what is said as the best that can be said, so as to reach 
your comprehension. 



58 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" As I caught the eye of this great presiding spirit 1 
perceived the idea emanating from his mind, ' I am 
glad to meet you,' yet not one of these words was 
spoken. I essayed to answer to express my thank- 
fulness for his friendly recognition of us, and I found 
I could not speak audibly, but my thought he caught 
immediately, and bowed in acknowledgment. He had 
been many thousands of years before a sage and philos- 
opher on the planet Mars, and bore about the same 
relation to his people as Mahomet, Confucius, Jesus, 
Swedenborg and others of their day have in your 
world ; and he is pre-eminent in music. All the great 
spirits of Mars are eminent musicians. Music, intel- 
lectual expansion and spiritual growth seem to be 
wedded, and go hand in hand together. These are 
wonderful relations, but nevertheless are true. 

" In my next I will introduce you to some of the so- 
cieties and cities of the planet, to be followed from 
time to time by revelations that can not fail to im- 
press you with the greatest interest, and not only be 
interesting and instructive, but will be of great value 
to you in your after life in the spheres. My dear and 
venerable friend, be of good cheer, and in the sweet 
bye and bye I will .accompany you on this very tour, 
and then you will perceive the difficulties in the way 
of giving a description so as to be understood by mor- 
tals. 

u March 27. After the ceremonies of reception, the 
details of which, fully set forth, would fill a large vol- 
ume, wo set out under the escort of a select delega- 
tion of forty-seven in number on a tour of inspec- 
tion, a few only of the incidents of which I can im- 
perfectly touch. Many things observed by us I am 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 59 

not at liberty to mention, for the all-sufficient reason 
that you would not understand them and the world 
is not prepared to receive them. 

" Our first visit was to a society of literary celebri- 
ties, located in a city of marvelous beauty. For our 
present use we will call the place the City of Learn- 
ing, and the society, the Society of the Literati. These 
names are not the real ones, but serve our purpose 
fully as well, indeed much better. The city is located 
on the border of a vast expanse of water of a golden 
hue, and this limpid stream is a vast musical organ of 
sounds, whose veiy vibrations, as its currents flow 
along, disturb the surrounding atmosphere, resulting 
in the production of harmonies in musical intonations, 
not only delightfully enrapturing, but far beyond the 
power of portrayal in human speech. We stood upon 
its brink, and were enchanted by its soul-piercing mel- 
ody. Ever and anon the mellowed rays of the spir- 
itual sun of our solar system would strike upon the 
bosom of this majestic stream, producing in their re- 
bound such marvelous, scintillating reflections as to 
cause the beautiful tints of your rainbow to pale into 
utter insignificance in comparison. You must elab- 
orate in your own mind these feeble touches of my 
pen, for I can not stop to give minute delineations, 
but only the idea, and you can carry it onward in 
your imagination without fear of overdoing the pict- 
ure or exaggerating the facts. 

" The ladies and gentlemen composing the Society of 
the Literati of this one city are numbered by the 
many thousands, with vast numbers of co-operating 
branches in as many different localities. We are told 
that there exist still higher branches, which we were 



60 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

not spiritually fitted to visit and comprehend. "We, 
as spirits from earth, lacked planetary development, 
but we have the promise in the infinite justice of God's 
eternal laws that in time, though very far distant, our 
earth, with its encircling spiritual spheres, will reach 
unto the gorgeous grandeur of Mars. Here let me 
pause and reflect. 

" March 29. Herein may he found ample food for 
study, inspiring elements for reflection : 

" First — How almighty is God, yet puny man is won- 
dering whether there is a God. 

" Second — How grand and noble may all his children 
become. 

" Third — How patiently does God, through inflexible 
and unerring law, work out such stupendous results. 
" Fourth — Man while in the flesh would arrogate 
unto himself the attributes of a God, when in truth it 
requires ages of effort and progress only to disclose to 
him that yet he is not yet an angel. But still how 
grand are the possibilities before man, inviting him 
onward. They can not be fully conceived by the 
finite mind, much less described. 

" We saw many translucent streams, whose pellucid 
waters were charming to behold. There is a law ap- 
pertaining to all advanced spiritual intelligences that 
induces the profoundest meditation, a sublimest ado- 
ration, when beholding, although only partially, the 
infinite variety and splendors of the creation; and I 
must occasionally pause in my narrative to give ex- 
pression to this law of my soul. 

" We were next conducted to a vast building, wherein 
was deposited the grandest library of books, and they 
were simply collections on scientific subjects alone. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 61 

Elsewhere were vast collections on other subjects not 
intimately connected with science — books as tangible 
and objective to us as the slate on which I am writing 
is to your touch and sight. Mr. Swedeuborg, being 
naturally of a scientific turn of mind, became absorb- 
ingly interested in this department, and it was with 
reluctance he took his departure therefrom. He made 
arrangements to return to study some things to be 
found here and which he has not been able to find 
elsewhere. He is promised aid by the members of 
the Society of the Literati. 

"We then visited an assembly of representative men, 
and I am now about to tell you something that will 
surprise you, but it is nevertheless true. "When I use 
the expression representative men I mean that each 
planet has representatives to every other planet in the 
solar system. I must reserve the next sitting for a 
description of the grand system of planetary diplo- 
macy — envoys extraordinary or ministers plenipoten- 
tiary, as you would call them. The power is too 
nearly exhausted to enter upon the subject at this sit- 
ting. We notify you now that by these ministrations 
and recitals you are living many, many years in ad- 
vance of this age of your planet. 

"April 3. In vour solar system you only claim eierht 
planets, exclusive of the Asteroids between Mars and 
Jupiter, but the truth is there are thirteen in num- 
ber; five of them have long since passed into their 
spiritual orbits, and consequently are not objective to 
your telescopes, and this state is to be the ultimate of 
all planets. Every planet, including the earth, is con- 
tinually undergoing change, that is to say, gradually 
passing from the gross to the more refined, and by a 



62 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

continually advancing series of geologic and progress- 
ive changes from the lower to the higher, from the 
crude to the more refined, from the material toward 
the spiritual, all will ultimately in time pass into spir- 
itual conditions or orbits. But as this theme is scien- 
tific, and not directly in the line of or pertinent to my 
narrative, I will abandon it, at least for the present. 

" In my last I told you that each planet was favored 
with representatives from every other planet in our 
system, and it is from this system, spiritually orig- 
inating, that you have derived your system of inter- 
national representation. I do not mean that any spirit 
communicated this to the nations, but that in the 
early formation of nationalities and the commercial 
intercourse between nations, susceptible public men, 
by reason of their exceeding impressibility, got the 
inspiration from surrounding spiritual influences, and 
to a certain degree and extent carried it into execu- 
tion in the establishment of ambassadorial relations 
between friendly governmental powers. But there 
is a marked difference between your nations and the 
spiritual worlds in the objects and purposes of such 
system. In the spiritual worlds representatives are 
deputed one to the other for an entirely different pur- 
pose from yours in sending ministers to England, 
France, Russia, etc. Your accredited agents of gov- 
ernment abroad are simply spies to watch other coun- 
tries, lest some trivial advantage may be gained against 
you in some minor and unimportant matter. Selfish- 
ness is the law by which they are to be governed. 
They are expected to be, and general^ are, lorded 
and feasted, dined and wined, all in the high-sounding 
names of civilization and national urbanity. Ours 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 63 

are sent on an entirely different mission — to gather 
knowledge for the benefit of all. Our public and 
representative men are not engaged in learning the 
rules and laws of the stock market, how to manipu- 
late it and how to create corners in the bountiful pro- 
ductions vouchsafed by the Infinite, nor how to se- 
cure safe investments with large and profitable mar- 
gins, but to learn the laws of the planets, to the end 
that they may be utilized in the development and 
progress of their varied and numerous peoples. 
Through whatever other planets, farther advanced 
than ours— have passed, we, too, must pass, and 
hence by our representative spirits learning of their 
varied progressive experiences, they are enabled to 
prepare for and assist in the changes that must inev- 
itably ensue. 

" I can not carry my thought further than to say in 
addition that our solar system, as a system in its en- 
tirety, has representatives to thousands of other solar 
systems revolving in space, circling around their re- 
spective central suns. You perceive that our grandeur 
of creative glory is looming up before us in majestic 
proportions, far beyond our power to comprehend and 
portray. . We look forward with great pleasure to 
each succeeding meeting, when we hope to continue 
our narrative if conditions continue to favor us. 

" April 6. After feasting in the examination of the 
library of the Society of the Literati I felt an intense 
desire to learn something in regard to the religious 
teachings on the planet in its past, as applied to the 
embodied Marsians, in the curious desire to find out 
whether their theological and religious history bore 
any resemblance to ours, and if dissimilar, wherein 



64 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

by contrast the dissimilarity consisted. Of course, in 
the very nature of things, this opened up a wide 
field of investigation, and I can only give you points 
condensed and with the utmost brevity, and without 
any attempt at elaboration. As 1 have already in- 
formed you, the denizens of Mars do not use our lan- 
guage or mode of speech, and therefore I am com- 
pelled to transfer their thoughts into our language, 
and you must consider that much will be lost in the 
transmission. 

"The planet Mars, in point of time, is much older 
than the earth, and consequently has passed through 
many more changes; these successive changes or 
epochs have had their respective theologies, and I was 
utterly surprised to learn that in some respects they 
resembled ours — that is to say, their earlier theology 
. — the later and truer has no resemblance whatever to 
ours or any that we have had in the past. The people 
of Mars in the dim and distant ages of the bygone 
have had many gods and many bibles. Their older 
books or bibles are now treasured as simple curiosi- 
ties belonging to the infancy of the race, and the 
wonder now is how it was possible at any period of 
their history that a people could be found seemingly 
so hopelessly ignorant as to believe them. The same 
fate, my friend, awaits your Bibles, Korans, Zend- 
Avestas, etc. But in all their speculations in religion 
thev were never taught to believe that their remote 
ancestors had fallen from an imaginary state of per- 
fection, nor that somebody else's sufferings and death 
were imperatively necessary to extricate them from 
the peril, and to reinstate them into the loving esteem 
and saving grace of their creator. While they had 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 65 

many follies in their early history, they had none like 
unto our own. They never believed God to be angry 
and revengeful nor that he would ever destroy their 
own or any other world by water, lire or otherwise, 
nor that men were made out of dust and women 
from ribs, nor that fish swallowed men, preserved 
them in good condition in their stomachs, and deliv- 
ered them subsequently and in safety upon the dry 
laud. These silly recitals of your bible will be ridi- 
culed and laughed at some of these coming happy 
days." 

"April 10: If you could be instantaneously 
transferred to the planet Mars just as you are in the 
form you could not live a moment of time. The in- 
tensely rarefied and etherealized atmospheres sur- 
rounding that planet would not maintain animal life 
such, as yours. Yet the time has been when beings more 
crude, dense and undeveloped have lived and figured 
on the stage of Mar's history. The law of evolution 
or unceasing progression applies to all planets and in 
a degree of unfoldment according to the periodic du- 
ration of time of each. Hence, under the operation 
of this inexorable law of the creation you can readily 
and with quick discerning eye see the ultimate des- 
tiny of all — that is to say, the utter overcoming of 
the crude and unrefined by the spiritual absorption of 
the whole, and yet this law that lifts the lower into 
the higher has no limit or ending. You can there- 
fore see in the myriad ages of future time with this 
law T , all the while actively working, how inexpressibly 
refined and sublimated will become spiritual beings 
and spiritual essences. This constitutes a grand rev- 
elation, and presents in contemplation the grand po.s- 



66 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

sibilities in store for man and the fittest of all things 
material. While the constituent elements are the 
same, yet in outward manifestation the atoms com- 
posing your physical bodies, and those in the form on 
Mars, are quite dissimilar. The same elements that 
exist here, either as applied to the spiritual or mate- 
rial, are essentially the same as exist in the remotest 
realms of the creation. They only differ in present- 
ation or outward manifestation, and in the degree of 
their development and progression. Here is another 
theme for contemplation and study, and the fact as 
here disclosed ought to fill us with proud satisfaction, 
for the inherent elements and qualities possessed by 
the millions of worlds, revolving in the unexplored 
immensity of space and their countless myriad hosts 
of people, are possessed by our world and our deni- 
zens, only differing in the intensity of their action 
and the degree of unfoldment or approximation to- 
ward maturity — ah, a maturity that never matures. 
While the law of progression is infinite it deals with 
the finite, and as the finite can only advance toward 
but never become infinite, so will this mighty law of 
progression carry us onward and onward, upward and 
upward through all coming time, and yet will never 
cease from its labors or find repose. What a mighty 
destiny before and for man ! 

"April 14. In this and my next I will tell you 
some things that will surprise you, but they are veri. 
tably true. lam dealing with you in verities, how- 
ever absurd and preposterous they may appear to the 
unprogressed mind. This is said, by your people, to 
be a remarkable age, and in many respects it is so. 
You are receiving some matter far in advance of the 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 67 

age in which you are living, but it will be properly 
recognized and appreciated in the years to come. 

"On the planet Mars jails and prison houses for 
the confinement and punishment of malefactors are 
only historic reminiscences of the past. There are 
now no punishments inflicted because there are no 
offenders to punish. 

" The doctrine of sacrificial atonement, with its re- 
tarding influence, was never taught to the people of 
that planet. They have always been taught the su- 
preme goodness of the creator conjoined with wisdom 
and almighty power. God being supremely good, 
and supreme in the exercise of goodness, they have 
not for thousands of years last past entertained the 
slightest apprehension that any onslaught upon their 
peace, happiness, and future felicity, would be per- 
mitted. From this ennobling conception of God came 
the desire to manifest a spirit of devotion and vener- 
ation, and consequently at an earlier period of the 
history of Mars the worship of the people was low 
and groveling somewhat resembling, as I am informed, 
the ancient idol worship of the Egyptians and Israel- 
ites. At the present time the two worlds — the spirit- 
ual and material — of Mars are so closely allied and 
interblended that the spiritual forces are enabled to 
exercise a positively restraining influence over the 
conduct and actions of those still connected with the 
physical, so they can not, if they would, commit 
wrong, or perpetrate infractions upon the law of 
right. By reason of this high condition of develop- 
ment those passing out of the material form are at 
once intromitted into the higher conditions of the 
spiritual world, because they are fitted for them. All 



68 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

are mediums and subject absolutely to spiritual action 
and control. This is what your spirit world is seek- 
ing to do for you, so, if possible, to pass over and be- 
yond some of the rough experiences of other planets, 
and your people do not seem to have the good sense 
to see it. On Mars there are no murders, arsons? 
robberies, forgeries, slanders, and other crimes and 
miscreants, for they have progressed beyond them. 
Do you not perceive the sublimity of this condition? 
and will it not be a most glorious consummation when 
you shall have reached the same altitude of progress. 

" April 17. Another subject of inquiry engrossed 
my attention, namely, marriage. I became interested 
to know something of the history of this people on 
this subject, and I found it to be an exceedingly in- 
teresting one. At this period of Mars there is no 
isuch institution as marriage in the sense you regard 
it. It is not an exaggeration to say that a very large 
per cent of your marriages are brought about as the 
result of the most unholy motives. Passion, lust, 
avarice, etc., are generally the impelling influences, 
and seldom is witnessed a union from purely spiritual 
causes. It is needless to say these marriages are not 
only temporal, ending with the death of the body, if not 
sooner by an unholy judicial system of divorcement, 
but entail a cruel blighting curse upon the race. 

" The history of your own planet on the subject of 
marriage is but feebly understood by you. Enough 
however is known to induce all lovers of humanity 
to loathe and detest it as it has been practiced in the 
past. It is claimed that God created animate crea- 
tures in pairs, male and female, and that, as applied to 
man, he cemented a union of one man and one woman 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 69 

in the marriage relation, and that this occurred at the 
commencement of the creation in the Garden of Eden. 
Your conspicuous bible characters, such as Abraham, 
Daniel, Solomon, and others, have not only ignored 
and trampled upon virtue in its simplest and purest 
forms, but with the hellish gluttony of the vampire 
feasting on blood, they debauched innocence, prosti- 
tuted virtue to their unholy lust, and thereby de- 
stroyed the holiest relation of life. Their numerous 
wives and concubines attest this, and yet your pious 
Christians are waging a relentless warfare upon the 
Mormons of Utah and vehemently thundering against 
the polygamous practices of the Latter Day Saints. 
Shame for Christian consistency. On this subject 
your advanced thinkers do not discuss those eternal 
and enduring spiritual laws of attraction by magnetic 
and soul affinity upon which alone shines forth in 
enternal splendor the blending of soul with soul in 
an everlasting conjugal union. The people of Mars 
understand and adopt these laws, or rather harmonize 
and abide in them, and now while embodied their 
marriages are for all unending future time. As the 
result we discover on that planet a race of people al- 
most perfect in their mental, moral, and physical de- 
velopments, requiring only time, experience, and 
progression, to disclose the still more wonderful pro- 
portions of their being. The union of one man and 
one woman under spiritual conditions is the highest 
type of marriage, and constitutes the paramount and 
supreme intention of the deity, and is the ultimatum 
and consummation of the law of conjugal laws — ail 
others are fleeting, dishonoring, and only evil. 

" April 20. Your candidates for matrimony, first ob- 



70 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

taining each other's consent, and the approval of par- 
ents or guardians, apply to the legally constituted au- 
thorities for a license or permit to enter the holy state, 
r and when procured they repair to a priest or magis- 
trate, who for a few shekels pronounces a few stereo- 
typed phrases, followed by the solemn declaration 
pronouncing them man and wife, closing generally 
with the ludicrous and farcial command, ' whom God 
has joined together let no man put asunder.' Oh, 
what a caricature and farce. It is had enough to de- 
clare whom the law has joined together, and so forth, 
but to assume with such solemn gravity that God 
has joined in wedlock's sacred union many of the 
marriage alliances which are mere caricatures of 
marriage, is not only blasphemy, but the very apex 
of nonsense, and is the widest possible departure from 
truth. 

" If it be true that God joins them together, no 
power, save himself could put asunder or disunite. 
To assert otherwise would amount to affirming that 
God is the author of failures. The difference between 
marriages that only have their basis in consent, license, 
and ceremony, and that marriage which God cements 
when two are joined by the divine laws of soul 
affinity and magnetic attraction — the one is of the 
earth earthy, the other is from the Lord through and 
by the operation of eternal law, and is therefore 
heavenly. Oh, that the children of earth might learn 
and conform to these subtle and glorious laws for 
their own good and in the interest of those to come 
after them. 

" On the planet Mars the people have no license 
system on any subject. While you on earth are 



HL 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 71 

wrangling about licensing the sale of intoxicating 
beverages, on Mars they have none to license. While 
here you are exercised over measures of taxation to 
raise revenue to support the government, on Mars 
no taxes whatever are imposed, and public affairs for 
the general public good are administered freely and 
without compensation, purely as a labor of love. 
The truth is that the mundane affairs of Mars are 
more regulated, controlled, and conducted by the 
spiritual powers of the planet than by those in the 
form. The two worlds are so intimately related to 
each other, and are so closely brought together, that 
this is not only practicable but desirable and profit- 
able. 

" April 21. There is on the planet Mars a subter- 
ranean passage through it from pole to pole, which 
Mr. Swedenborg informs me he has thoroughly ex- 
plored. There is more truth than poetry in what is 
known as Bynames' hole as applied to your earth. 
When the time comes by the settlement of your as 
yet vast millions of uninhabited acres, and a change 
takes place in northern temperature and conditions, 
the people of that day will discover within and through 
the very heart center of your earth a country nearly 
as large as the exterior surface, and by that time 
every thing therein will be sufficiently progressed and 
developed to supply the wants and invite the ambi- 
tion and energies of the people of that period. But 
this discovery, or rather the occupation of this sub- 
terranean country, is very far off in point of time, 
and the human race of earth will then be quite dif- 
ferent from what it is now. They will have so changed 
by the lapse of time and the law of progress as to be 



72 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

enabled to pass into the new country by way of the 
north pole with ease and safety. The north pole is 
the true opening, and can not be reached until the 
fullness of time, as I have indicated. As the area of 
territory of Mar's surface was about being densely 
covered by population, and apprehensions were being 
entertained for the future of the race, lo and behold, 
the new interior country was discovered and subse- 
quently peopled. By the time it is crowded no more 
will be needed, for the planet by that time will have 
passed into its spiritual orbit and into the ocean of 
spiritual ether, where suffering can never come from 
lack of room. This will be the future history of your 
planet, and you will pass through the same experi- 
ences and reach the same ultimate. Behold how in- 
finitely wise all things are forearranged. Just as we 
need by our development new limits, new appliances 
and new things, tbey are ready for our use, and are 
never disclosed until we are ready for and need them. 
" April 24. At this time those living on the planet 
Mars do not die or pass through the change called 
death as you do here. They have no diseases that 
cause the untimely taking off of the inhabitants. 
Disease has long since been banished. All of the 
procreating elements of disease residing in the mate- 
riality of the globe or the surrounding atmosphere 
have been by progressive development eliminated. 
And even before this had fully occurred the people 
had learned the laws of health and the process of neu- 
tralizing and rendering harmless the lurking germs 
that remained. You may perceive from this what a 
happy people they are. There are no untimely deaths 
on Mars. Children grow up to manhood and woman- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 73 

hood ; yet there is no fixed standard of time when all 
die, that is, no definite and invariable period of longev- 
ity. And right here comes in a great law, now opera- 
tive on Mars, that the people of earth know nothing 
about, for it has never been communicated before, 
namely, children can not die there. It was never 
designed that they should die here. Marriage being 
brought about, as before stated, by the grand law of 
magnetic attraction or spiritual affinity, and all dis- 
eases being banished and their producing causes an- 
nihilated, nothing but absolutely sound and perfect 
physical and mental organizations are imparted to 
offspring by their progenitors. You see at once the 
idea, for I must be brief — the children being perfect 
in health of body and mind by procreation, and there 
being no diseases to affect them after birth, death 
can not touch them, in fact can touch none before the 
time arrives, varying in point of longevity for the 
separation of spirit and body. !N"one die before the 
full maturity of stature, and some live to be a very 
advanced age. After reaching complete development 
or stature, they pass out of and away from the mate- 
rial in point of time, according to the antecedent con- 
ditions of their varied being. Some arrive after ma- 
turity to the estate of progressive experience in the 
form sooner than others, and when this period ar- 
rives, whether it be at thirty, forty, fifty or a hundred 
years, they pass on to their ultimate and higher state 
of being in the spiritual spheres. It is known when 
each shall pass out of the form long before the event 
transpires, and all due preparation is accordingly made 
therefor. Your scientists have discovered, and rightly, 
too, that about every seven years the atoms and par- 



74 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

tides composing your physical organizations change 
and give way to new ones. But this is gradual and 
imperceptible. On Mars, at this period of develop- 
ment, the changes are much more frequent, and these 
successive changes determine the approach of disso- 
lution, and instead of death in an hour or a day, it 
goes on perceptibly and without pain or suffering for 
years. Every change lessens the material composites 
of the body, and at each a nearer approach to the 
spiritual takes place, until finally the physical, by the 
gradual process of embodied sublimation or attenua- 
tion, passes away, and the spiritual becomes supreme. 
This culmination is equivalent to what you call death, 
except, that there is no attending pain, no death strug- 
gle, and no physical body afterwards to take care of 
and lay away. The body, by successive changes, has 
seemingly vanished into nothingness and been ab- 
sorbed in the atmosphere. 

" April 27. "We have been expecting you to inquire 
of us how the people live on the planet Mars, what 
kind of architecture in the construction of their busi- 
ness houses, habitations, etc. ; what kind of food they 
eat, and with what raiment are they clothed, etc. 

" You will have observed from what we have here- 
tofore made known to you that the services of four 
classes of professional worthies have been dispensed 
with, simply because the people have progressed be- 
yond their utility, namely, lawyers, doctors, preach- 
ers and politicians. Lawyers can only thrive and 
exist professionally in a land where conscience is not 
permitted to exercise its native simplicity and posi- 
tive purity, and where the lower passions and pro- 
pensities are largely dominant. When conscience, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 75 

active, pure and simple, is allowed to manifest its 
functions in perfect unrestraint, and to act as the gov- 
erning power in the regulation of human conduct, 
the presence and office of the barrister are no longer 
of use. Lawyers flourish as a general proposition on 
strife and contention, bad faith and unfair dealing; 
and when these shall happily end, like poor cashiered 
Cassio, their occupation will be gone. The doctors 
grow opulent by medication, because of the ignorance 
of the people with reference to the true laws of mar- 
riage, proper antenatal conditions, neglect of proper 
hygiene, and ignorance as to overcoming or render- 
ing harmless the deleterious conditions, both atmos- 
pheric and from the undeveloped state of inherent 
nature. But when, by progressing beyond their 
harmful influences, or by enlightenment and healing 
gifts, the people shall obtain a complete mastery over 
them, disease shall be banished, then the avocation of 
the physician ends, and he will have to seek a liveli- 
hood in other pursuits. 

" The preacher lives in comfortable indolence be- 
cause of the ignorance and superstition of the people. 
His office is one of hypocrisy and fraud. Hypocrisy, 
because if he is not a fool, he knows his teachings are 
not true, and of fraud, because by dissembling he ex- 
torts from his parishioners a dishonorable subsistence. 
When the people grow sufficiently wise they will be 
taught by the denizens of the spirit world truth and 
righteousness. Then the mission or office of the sacer- 
dotal gentlemen will be closed, and they can seek em- 
ployment in the many more honorable occupations 
The politician, cunning and subtle, swims along 
smoothly upon the rolling current of the credulity of 



76 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

the people and his own duplicity. He prospers be- 
cause you have not as yet grown into full political man- 
hood, and he succeeds in hoodwinking you with the 
belief that his heart is overflowing with patriotism 
and anxious solicitude for the public weal. But I 
must leave this class — the politicians — to the tender 
mercies of several gentlemen who are waiting the 
opportunity to contribute their part to your enter- 
prise. 

" April 28. The coarse food necessary for you in- 
order to keep up the crude materiality of which your 
physical make-up is composed, is not needed by the 
denizens of Mars. In the composition of your phy- 
sical bodies is a representative of all the material ele- 
ments in nature— iron, calcium, wood, earth, etc. — 
and it is easily demonstrated by microscopic inspec- 
tion and chemical analysis, that in every drop of blood 
in the human system all these varied and numerous 
elements are represented. Hence man may be safely 
considered a microcosm, or nature in her vast domain, 
reflected in miniature. But } t ou still exist in the realm 
of the crude, and yet you are vastly more refined than 
in the ages past, and forward, onward, and upward 
is the line of march marked out for you by the in- 
finitely wise director of all things. On the planet 
Mars no animal food is used, because among other 
reasons the physical properties of the body do not re- 
quire the elements of animal flesh to replace nature's 
wastes. Thousands of former species of animals have 
become extinct, swallowed up in the ever maelstrom 
of progression or absorbed in the higher forms. Vege- 
tation in the planet Mars is quite different, both in 
expression or appearance, and constituent composition 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 77 

from the vegetation of your planet. Here the aroma 
residing in the vegetable and escaping therefrom, is 
largely absorbed and neutralized by the grossness of 
the vegetable itself, while on Mars the grossness has 
become so diminished that to the senses the aroma 
has almost become tangibly objective, and this aroma 
is food strengthening and invigorating, is nearly suf- 
ficient of itself to support existence in the form with- 
out the assistance of more substantial fibers of the 
parent vegetable. Yet in a certain prepared form 
the substantial material is used. The time is not very 
far distant, as I am assured, when the people there 
will subsist on aromatic emanations from material pro- 
ductions, aided by magnetic, electric, and other at- 
mospheric properties used simply by inhalation. In 
the water you use are to be found teeming millions of 
living and moving animalcules. They are enabled to 
live on the elements of the water in its present gross 
state, but on the planet Mars the water has been dis- 
possessed of its life germinating and life sustaining 
properties to aquatic productions, and has thus pro- 
gressed with all other things and beings. ISTo life or 
form of life is now brought into being there, but such 
higher types as are fitted to pass with the planet into 
spiritual conditions ; and the water being so purified 
by nature's refining processes is as different from your 
ordinary water as clear, sparkling sprays projected 
from your fountains and dancing in the sunbeams are 
to the murky waters of your rivulets immediately, 
after a rivulet rain-storm. I will resume this subject 
in my next. 

" May 1. On Mars they have learned how to produce 
from the soil itself any vegetable that naturally grows 



78 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

therefrom. In the soil itself reside all the constitu- 
ent elements of all vegetation in their infinite variety. 
Yon may thoughtlessly answer, that in order to pro- 
duce any species of vegetation used for table con- 
sumption, the seed or germ must first be sown in the 
soil beneath the surface, but you forget that this pro- 
cess is but the result of civilization and art, and that 
originally, that is before you learned how to obtain 
and use seed, the products sprang of themselves and 
apparently spontaneously from the earth. Whence 
did they come ? and whence w^ere their germinating 
and generating powers obtained ? Think a little 
deeply on the subject, and you will be led irresistibly 
to the correct conclusion that in the soil exists all the 
requisite elements in the production of vegetation by 
growth. The people of Mars have acquired the 
knowledge which enables them to produce out of the 
soil, abstractly considered, all the essential qualities 
of the vegetable without waiting for the tedious pro- 
cess of growth. This process is purely chemical, and 
everybody there understands it. Hence you see they 
do not have to buy vegetables, for all can have their 
essential qualities for food without cost to the con- 
sumer. Long since the ownership of the soil by in- 
dividuals was abandoned for the general common 
good, and on this subject the primitive condition of 
affairs in your planet prevails universally on Mars — 
that is to say everybody owns realty, one just as much 
as another. This is pure unadulterated agrarianism 
in its highest and most perfect form. 

" It is often asked in your intercourse with the world 
of spirits : What are the employments of spirits ? 
what are they about? what do they do ? etc. It is 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 79 

pertinent to inquire, What are the employments of 
the people of Mars still embodied ? What do they 
do since we have discovered that they do not now toil 
for the acquisition of riches, because they have no 
possible use for them ; no taxes to pay, no govern- 
mental machinery to support, no lawyers to annoy, no 
preachers to vex, torture, and maintain, no doctors to 
nauseate with their drugs, no politicians to hoodwink 
the people and feed at the public crib, no grocery bills 
to look after and liquidate, etc. Before we answer 
these and many other important queries, we shall see 
what the people do for raiment with which to clothe 
themselves, and what they do for shelter, if, indeed, 
shelter is necessary. If we shall discover that these are 
free gifts from the father, then the employments of the 
embodied Marsians becomes a question of very inter- 
esting and pressing importance. 

" May 4. I suspect that you already anticipate the 
tenor of what we have to tell you in regard to the 
clothing of the people of Mars, what texture, how 
derived, etc. Your keen perceptions and astute com- 
prehension enables you to see at a glance that if this 
law of progression, as applied to the material, whereby 
the lowest forms are reached and operated upon, lift- 
ing with its strong arms into higher and still higher 
conditions, be true, it must be true and in regard to 
all material things — the soil, rock, wood, water, etc., 
animal and vegetable life, and as we shall have occa- 
sion to show further on, to the mundane atmosphere 
surrounding the planet. All things progress and ad- 
vance in like and equal ratio, leaving nothing be- 
hind or unaffected by the law. This advancing 
march of matter from the crude and gross into the 



80 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

more refined and sublimated is seemingly slow, but 
nevertheless sure and unerringly, indiscriminate, and 
precise. Therefore the raiment worn by the denizens 
of Mars has reached the same altitude of refinement 
as all other material things. 

" The seasons, once resembling yours, spring, sum- 
mer, autumn, and winter, have nearly merged, that 
is to say, have nearly blended into one perpetual sea- 
son of summer loveliness. The austerity of winter, 
with its stormy blasts and cold, piercing wind waves 
has long since ceased to be ; no frosts to nip and 
blight the fruits and fiowers; no chilling autumns, 
with withering leaf, to inspire with melancholy and 
sadness. What will surprise you in this connection 
is, that, while the cold temperature has wrought its 
work in the development of the past, and is only 
known to have once existed by historic relation, the 
intense heat of summer has also disappeared. When 
you have severely cold winters, almost unendurable 
even in your temperate zones, your wise philosophers 
theorize that your ultimate destiny is to freeze out; 
that the icebergs and ice glaziers of the north are 
ultimately either to roll over the now fair portions of 
the earth, destroying all things animate, or that their 
freezing breath will sweep over the globe involving 
in death all the fair and lovely forms of nature's 
productions, including godlike man, the apex of 
crowning glory of creation. But lo ! when the earth 
straightens up on her axis and the cold waves retreat 
and sink away in their northern hiding place, and the 
genial and vernal season with its pleasant tempera- 
ture returns, these same philosophers take a breathing 
spell, rest awhile, and conclude that it has not been 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 81 

so very cold after all; and when the summer comes, 
if it happens to be unusual in the intensity of its heat, 
and the solar rays seem to almost melt into molten 
ruin all things, and to scorch the forest leaves and wilt 
the waving harvests, these same philosophical wise- 
acres change tactics, reverse their position, and with 
one heroic hound jump to a directly opposite conclu- 
sion, namely : that we are all destined ultimately to 
burn up and become annihilated in a general confla- 
gration by solar heat igniting the combustible mate- 
rial of the planet and its surrounding atmosphere. 
Oh, how impotent in philosophy ! A simple and 
humble inquiry settles the question. Why destroy 
this fair earth, daily and hourly becoming still fairer ? 
Does God do any thing without an allwise and benefi- 
cent purpose ? Is it possible for Him to do a silly, 
foolish thing? He would certainly not destroy the 
earth unless there was thereby some noble and benefi- 
cent purpose to subserve. What grand purpose, good 
and wise, can be accomplished by ending the exist- 
ence of a planet that has as yet scarcely begun to live ? 
To assume that He will do such a thing is to assume 
that He has become disappointed and disgusted with 
his own creation, which annuls His wisdom and fore- 
sight, or that He delights in folly, making a world 
and then destroying it because He cfn, or for any 
other silly and insufficient reason. To thus assume is 
to dishonor Him as a God, and to invest Him with the 
attributes of a devil. 

"Wonderful changes do occur marking epochs, or 
cycles, in the history of all planets. Where you live 
to-day, thousands upon thousands of years ago an- 
other race of human beings lived, attaining a certain 



82 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

degree of development in science and art, but upon 
the fulfillment of their mission they passed away from 
the face of the earth. Where you now live was once 
swept over by old ocean, and where the deep waters 
and angry billows of the Atlantic now roll and revel 
once lived a race of people called the Atlantians, but 
their land with its embellishments of art and pro- 
gressive development became submerged by the 
changes of the mighty waters, and now lies buried 
beneath its rolling deep and lashing waves. But ob- 
serve in all this that the globe goes on, and succeed- 
ing developments of man and material things come 
forth far in advance of the formed order of things. 
What, if in the womb of time it is reserved for At- 
lantis to arise from her watery entombment and to 
flourish again with renewed and increased graudeur, 
involving the submersion of other portions of the 
earth's surface, including your own ? This would not 
be death to any portion of the planet in any high and 
exalted sense, but a progressive change, a revivifying 
of life, a quickening and impulsion of being in the 
grand advancing march of development and sublima- 
tion. As we write, the theme expands and enlarges, 
and as the power begins to wane we find we have not 
discoursed minutely on the subject of raiment, and 
beg your indulgence for a resume of the subject in 
our next. 

" May 5. There being, at this stage of develop- 
ment on Mars, no winter with its concomitants of 
winds and storm, snow and ice, you have no difiiculty 
in apprehending that very light material only is needed 
to protect and render comfortable the persons of the 
people. Material of the texture of yonr lightest flan- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 83 

nel underwear would be oppressively and uncomiort- 
ably warm, and indeed insufferable. Thin and quite 
gauzy robes composed of finely attenuated and ex- 
quisitely refined material constitute their apparel. I 
have told you hitherto that of the animal kingdom 
only the fittest have survived the marvelous success- 
ive changes in the infinite series of progressive ad- 
vancements. Among those now living with the abil- 
ity of propagation is an animal species somewhat 
resembling your sheep, but so exceedingly refined as 
to be remarkably striking in contrast. Of course, 
and in the very nature of things, the fleecy wool, 
or, rather velvety down, that grows upon this noble 
animal, so distinguished for innocence, aesthetic tastes 
in food and refinement in habits of life, is eminently 
suited for purposes of habilarnent, and accordingly is 
thus utilized. They are propagated in unlimited num- 
bers, live to an advanced age, are the common prop- 
erty of all the people, and have within themselves the 
qualities of eternal being. 

" The forest and other trees, shrubs and flowers, 
have advanced under the same law of progress. Very 
many species of the olden time disappearing — the fit- 
test only having survived. Among those now extant 
on the planet, is a peculiar and quite extensively 
cultivated species, from which is produced a fabric re- 
sembling somewhat your cotton production, with the 
same difference in refinement of texture as exists be- 
tween your wool and that developed on Mars as herein 
stated. This is utilized for raiment also. Besides the 
people there have mastered the law that spirits employ 
in the materialization of garments at your material- 
izing seances, only much finer, and of the ambiant 



84 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

atmosphere, tilled as it is with sublimated atoms and 
emanations, they are enabled to collect and magnetize 
into solidified form appropriate garments for their use 
and comfort. When thus magnetized into objective 
and tangible being it partakes of and assumes a varied 
hue and color, according to the progressed and ad- 
vanced state of the person using the garments. In 
other words the magnetic aura and spiritual emana- 
tions proceeding from the individual infiltrates and 
becomes interwoven in the delicate fibers of the new 
garment extracted and brought into being from the 
viewless air, imparting hue and coloration present- 
ing different appearances, whereby the grade or de- 
gree of advancement of the individual wearer is made 
known and determined. Here you inquire of the 
spirits to know what sphere you are fitted to enter 
in the spirit world, then they know by this means in 
advance of leaving the body. Your spirits in im- 
parting light and knowledge to you concerning their 
state, tell you that a spirit and its proper sphere are 
known by the peculiar aura, or surroundings and 
clothing of the individual spirit, and this is true to 
the letter. But on Mars this law of spirit designa- 
tion that belongs to the spiritual spheres of your 
planet, reaches out and reveals itself in the persons 
of the people of Mars before they have actually en- 
tered upon the spiritual journey of life in the spirit- 
ual spheres. 

"Now the additional fact is disclosed to you that by 
reason of this mode of obtaining raiment the avoca- 
tion of the merchant is of slender dimensions, and 
the manufacturer's art and pursuit, except as known 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 85 

and practiced by all alike, are now unknown on the 
planet Mars. 

" In our next we will discourse on buildings, hab- 
itations, etc. ~SVe had hoped to reach this part of the 
subject in this communication, but as we advance 
the themes and subjects broaden and expand, and we 
sincerely regret that the power by this process — in- 
dependent slate writing — although the purest of all, 
will not last us at one sitting sufficiently to fully 
elaborate our thoughts and descriptive delineations 
on a given subject. It has this advantage, however, 
it comes directly from the materialized lingers of the 
spirit without the direct use of the brain of another 
in transmission. Adieu until our next. 

'-May 8. The same reasons assigned in our last, 
why very light garments only were needed for the 
bodily comfort and happiness of the people of Mars 
apply with equal propriety, force, and truth, to the 
subject of their habitations. 

" Your rains are produced by vapors, mists, and 
emanations from your oceans, rivers, lakes, etc., which 
by virtue of solar attraction or a reversal of the law 
of gravitation the vapors, mists, etc., are drawn up- 
ward in space until a certain density is reached, dif- 
fering in altitudes of height, s when they become con- 
gealed by the force of the cold attenuated atmos- 
phere there into small particles called rain drops, and 
these are carried along by the undercurrents of un- 
concealed clouds until a certain electro-magnetic con- 
dition is reached, when the clouds begin to empty 
and rid themselves of their burdened contents. 

" Xow we have informed you of the progress the 
water of Mars has made in being dispossessed of its 



86 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

gross and mighty elements ; hence there are none of 
these to ascend and to commingle in the formation of 
rain drops ; hence none hnt the purer and refined el- 
ements of the water are exhaled and drawn upward, 
and consequently none but the pure and refined de- 
scend. These are in themselves comparatively light 
and of greatly diminished gravity, and therefore mild 
and pleasant in their effect. Especially does this be- 
come true as a resulting necessity, from the fact that 
there are no fierce winds or storms or cold tempera- 
ture in the surrounding atmospheric belts or zones. 
The rains on Mars are more like your gentle dews of 
early autumn than your rains and showers. You at 
once take in the situation from this and preceding 
statements of facts that crude material structures are 
not necessary, even if the material for their construc- 
tion could be found, and we have seen that such is 
not the case, for all things, including the material in 
detail out of which edifices are constructed, have pro- 
gressed beyond and above their crude grossness. 

" In some portions of Mars no structures are used at 
all, owing to the mildness of the climate and the total 
absence of inclemency in the slightest degree. In 
other portions the beautifully developed trees, and 
especially those that spread out their branches near 
the surface of the soil, are ample for the purposes of 
shelter. Still in others they have a sort of building 
which is a grand pavilion, embracing a vast area of 
territory, thousands of miles in extent, under the 
same roof or cover, which during certain periods of 
the year and day become luminous and transparent. 
The temples and gorgeous structures, cities and mag- 
nificent edifices have been transferred in spiritual es- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 87 

sence to the spiritual spheres, and have ceased to he 
as material entities, so when the planet passes into the 
spiritual condition outright and in toto, all that Mars 
could ever hoast of in architectural grandeur and ex- 
cellence is preserved and perpetuated with additional 
luster and heauty from the finishing spiritual touches 
by the Infinite Master Builder. And now you per- 
ceive that other questions come up right here and re- 
quire recognition and treatment. Among them these : 
Do the people on Mars sleep ? If so, how often and 
how much ? 

" May 11. "Why is it that you require repose in 
sleep ? In the infinitely wise arrangement of all 
things there are amply satisfactory reasons for every 
demand, every requirement, every manifestation, and 
therefore there are reasons why sleep is induced and 
is an imperative necessity in your present and past 
states of existence. 

" 'Wlien rest in sleep is long deferred from nervous 
derangements or other causes, your physicians ad- 
minister narcotics to induce it, for they well know, as 
you all do, that sleep is necessary after intervals of 
wakefulness in order to protract your being in the 
form, and why ? 

" You have voluntary and involuntary functions or 
organs ; the voluntary only, the involuntary never, 
can be suspended for certain periods of time. Your 
respiration and blood circulation are involuntary, and 
as long as you remain embodied in flesh will continue 
to perform their appropriate functions, whether you 
wake or sleep, for they are not subject to or influenced 
by the will. And it is by the unconscious operation 
of these that vour voluntary functions when sus- 



OO SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

pended in sleep are replenished and reinvigorated. 
You are, as at present constituted, made up corporally 
of gross material, which becomes wearied and ex- 
hausted by the active exercise or operation of the 
voluntary functions, and the nerve force will expend 
itself unless periodically reimbursed and replenished, 
and restored to its normal condition by the interven- 
tion and recuperative power of sleep. When in the 
ages to come your people lose this grossness in their 
material composition, your inclination to sleep and 
the necessity for it will abate and become lessened 
correspondingly to your successive stages of advance- 
ment in progressive development. 

" Thus is revealed to you the fact that on Mars, at 
this time, the inhabitants have but very little need of 
sleep. They sleep, but in a modified sense as to pe- 
riods, duration and manner. They rest when fatigued, 
and for brief periods pass into a state of languor or 
stupidity, to some extent analogous to your sleeping 
state, which is never again regained oftener than once 
a week, and then only for a few hours. 

" Your spirit friends will tell you that they never 
sleep, but rest, and ever keep in mind that the people 
of Mars are closely approximating the spiritual. Then, 
again, on Mars they do not have night as you do, and 
consequently not the same nocturnal influences to sug- 
gest and invite sleep. This suggests another subject 
germane to our line of thought. In nature you find 
always two extremes, that seem to stand in antipodal 
relations to each other. Let us give a few instances 
in illustration : You have clay and night, cold and 
heat, male and female, fire and water, good and evil, 
etc. Some of these seem to be at fierce war with each 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 89 

other, and yet what a delusion ! This seeming antag- 
onism is but the working of a law that shall eventu- 
ate in the production of the completest harmony. 
Undeveloped people, ignorant of the jewel-crowned 
truths, as yet concealed from them in the grand ar- 
cana of nature and the progressive sciences, laugh and 
sneer at the idea of marriages in spirit life, when the 
unvarnished truth is that man, considered in his inde- 
pendent and separate sexual relation, is but a half 
man, aiid can not become rounded out into fully de- 
veloped manhood until consociated in conjunctive 
union with the opposite sex — not indeed and truly 
until the man and woman become twain, one flesh, or, 
in better phraseology, spiritually unitized. 

" The dav and nierht will continue until finallv and 
by gradual processes the night is banished, and van- 
ishes in the splendor of a continuously refulgent and 
sunlit atmosphere. On Mars this condition is almost 
reached, and the night there resembles the shadings 
thrown over the earth when a cloud passes over the 
face of your moon at hightide, and ultimately even 
this shall be no more, for in the spiritual spheres of 
Mars, as in your exalted ones, there are no shadows 
to obscure or mar, the radiant light of the spiritual 
sun, and Mars itself is fast approaching this sublime 
condition. We must withhold what we have to say 
in regard to the seeming strife between good and evil 
for our next. 

" May 12. The people of Christendom have had it 
rung in their ears for nearly two thousand years that 
man is essentially bad, unutterably wicked, unspeak- 
ably depraved, and, worst of all, this horrid state 
conies to him, not of his own creating, but by inev- 



90 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

itable and unavoidable inheritance. In our ignorance 
and credulity how we have wept over the weakness 
and folly of our first parents in yielding to the flattery 
and persuasive eloquence of the cruel serpent in the 
pure and primitive bowers of Eden. Our tears have 
flown and flown, with no gentle, soothing hand to 
touch our eyes and bid them cease; no voice pano- 
plied with authority to speak to ; no words of hope 
and cheer. We have been told in answer to our anx- 
ious entreaties for blissful hope and loving -counsel 
that there is a superabundance of evil in us, and a 
trifling, insignificant quantity of good, and that 
nothing short of a miracle of regeneration can save 
us from unutterable and unending glory in the life to 
come; that without this miraculous interposition of 
divine grace, the little good that is in us will be swal- 
lowed up and devoured by the appalling evil of our 
sinfully inherited natures. Oh, man, how you de- 
grade your true nobility, your godlike and divine no- 
bility, by bowing the knee to this hideous monster of 
falsehood, and by kneeling at this unholy shrine. In 
direct opposition to this abominable and degrading 
doctrine stands the truth in its pristine and noble 
beauty. 

"According to this Christian doctrine we behold in 
man a combination of good and evil, and in the strug- 
gle for the mastery the evil is to be mightier than the 
good. The good emanating from and partaking of 
the majestic excellence of the eternal, infinite God 
must, alas, succumb to and be overthrown by evil, its 
unholy rival. Can man conceive of a scheme more de- 
grading and heartless, and more completely dishonor- 
ing to Ood and his infinite perfections of wisdom, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 91 

goodness and power — a doctrine more utterly subver- 
sive of moral goodness, deific excellence, and that 
more completely wrecks the moral government of God 
and dumps into one common funeral heap the hopes 
and happiness of the human race. E"o, no, this is 
not true ; it is false, false, basely false. 

" What is the true theory of good and evil? Man, 
oji, man, hearken to the voice of truth, and be wooed 
and Avon by its gentle entreaties. Let the scales of 
ignorance and superstition fall from your eyes. Look 
upward for truth, and be baptized in its beauteous 
light, and cleansed in its pure and holy waters. Evil 
is the assemblage of elements in the concrete, if I may 
be permitted so to speak, and is simply undeveloped 
good, or good in a lesser degree. Evil is evanescent 
and transitory, good is permanent and eternally en- 
during. The fittest of all things in the grand scheme 
of progression only survive, while all else is doomed 
to perish. The. good and the true are as enduring 
and everlasting as the eternal God himself, while the 
evil and the false are fleeting, unencluring, and carry 
within themselves the insatiate and unappeasable ele- 
ments of ultimate annihilation. Be assured of this, 
for no truth in God's illimitable universe has been 
more firmly established on a more indestructible 
foundation. Good day. 

" May 15. Astronomers will tell you that in their ob- 
servations through the telescope the planet Mars pre- 
sents a red brilliancy not observably characteristic of 
the other planets in your solar system, which they are 
unable to account for. Considering the vastness of 
the subject, the immense distance in space when the 
scintillating orbs are chanting their silent songs of 



92 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

praise to God, the difficulties in the way of observa- 
tion, etc., the discoveries, in the domain of astronomy 
have been fully as remarkable, important, and satis- 
factory, as in any other field of scientific investiga- 
tion. But still only a very little compared with the 
immensity of the subject has been disclosed and some 
of that mixed and interlarded with error. Astron- 
omy will become the greatest of all sciences when by 
new apparatus and new appliances the spiritual 
spheres belonging to the various planets shall have 
been discovered. This success will be achieved in the 
coming time. On Mars the people have mastered 
this problem, and I was surprised to learn that they 
knew all about our spiritual spheres from their far 
distant standpoint of observation, and that they knew 
minutely all the characteristic and inherent qualities 
of your planetary atmosphere. They have long since 
invented instruments by which they are enabled to 
photograph in minute detail and perfect fidelity of 
representation every material object on the earth. 
And you will be surprised when I tell you that I in- 
spected Stockholm, London, Paris, New York, your 
own queen city, Cincinnati, etc., in a more perfect 
form of presentation than your artists can reproduce 
on canvas with pencil and brush, and at the same 
time I was standing in spirit in the immeasurable im- 
mensity of space on the planet Mars. I can not give 
you even in outline, much less in detail, the modus 
operandi of this achievment, and will only say that 
the rays of light in reflective power will yet dawn 
upon your scientists and philosophers as the agent of 
discoveries and accomplishments not now even 
dreamed of by the people of earth. I want to acid 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 93 

right here a prophetic statement, which you may 
carefully note, that the time is not so very far distant 
when your inspired inventors will devise and con- 
struct an instrument that will disclose to the human 
material eye, to the astonishment of the world, your 
own spirit land; for let it he well understood that 
your spirit world has a real, tangible, objective exist- 
ence, that will yet yield its rich treasures in scientific 
revealments for the enlightment and progress of your 
race. In very truth the spirit world is the only real 
and permanent one, constructed by the infinite mas- 
ter builder for all eternal time, while your physical 
and material, except their spiritual essences, are but 
the shadows and temporary projections from the 
spiritual. Logically and metaphysically speaking, 
the spirit world is the pre-eminent cause of your world, 
the mere transitory effect. This "being true, your keen 
sense hastens you at once to the conclusion, founded 
in reason and truth, that an effect can not he greater 
or more enduring than the cause that produced it, 
hut must of necessitv and in the very nature of things 
he infinitely less. 

" May 18. A people so pre-eminently advanced in all 
that appertains to the sublimation of their being, and 
all that surrounds them, and in which they come in 
contact, must necessarily he exceedingly refined and 
aesthetic in their mannerisms, habits of life, intercourse 
with each other, and in their vocations and employ- 
ments. In the very nature of things it could not he 
otherwise. From what has been heretofore said re- 
lating to the highly favored and inestimably pro- 
gressed denizens of Mars, it is not difficult to see that 
their pursuits must necessarily and almost entirely re- 



94 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

late to the realm of the intellectual and spiritual, as 
they have passed beyond the requirements and de- 
mands of that which pertains to the material phase 
t of existence. Physical wants require physical exer- 
tion to supply them. Material requirements necessi- 
tate attention to and labor in the domain of the ma- 
terial, and this, for obvious reasons, that need not be 
stated or discussed. It may be prudent, however, to 
premise that when the physical constitution requires 
substantially gross materials to keep up and main- 
tain the corporealities of our nature, we must look to 
the productions of the farm and the fruitage of the 
forest, and also to animal food, which are always in 
quality and degree in exact correspondence to our 
status or state of progression. But when Ave lose the 
constitutional elements of corporeal being that belong 
to the lower strata of the constitution of things, we 
require something more refined and sublimated, and 
lo, always it is at hand to meet the exigency, for let 
it ever be borne in mind that the law that is inces- 
santly and without intermission working away in solv- 
ing the great problem of life and being, moving up- 
ward from the lower to the higher, is not confined in 
its operations to only form or species of being, but 
applies to and operates upon all, whether rational or 
irrational, animate or inanimate, and pushes all for- 
ward and upward with perfect and precise equability 
and in exact and equally proportional degree, none 
advancing more rapidly than the rest and none lag- 
ging behind. Thus you perceive the infinite order 
and the beautiful symmetry of the great law of evolu- 
tion and progression. Herein is necessitated varied 
changes in the value and character of vocation and 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 95 

employments, suited to the continued mutations of 
things in the endless series of progressive changes. 

"At one period in the history of Mars the art of 
photography was discovered. Of course it attracted 
great attention and challenged admiration. It was 
regarded not only as wonderful but marvelous. The 
discoverer was almost deified, for he was thought to 
be endowed with something of the divine nature not 
discoverable in others, until the art advanced step by 
step, improvement on improvement, when the divin- 
ity with which the discoverer had been invested by 
the admiring multitudes dwindled into insignificance, 
and the very sensible conclusion reached that he was 
merely highly gifted and spiritually inspired, but alto- 
gether human still. Compare the primitive system 
of photography, limited as it was, to objects of im- 
mediate presence to that now existing, whereby worlds 
and systems of worlds are made tributary to its dis- 
coveries and achievements. Xow, instead of the won- 
ders of the art inspiring hero worship of the men 
engaged in its studies and who produce the wondrous 
results, a feeling of awe and veneration for the con- 
tinually increasing wonders of the creation is in- 
spired. The admiration is justly transferred from 
man to the creator and the stupendous majesty of his 
laws and works. On Mars photography is now and 
has been for a long time a favorite and delightful em- 
ployment pursued by the many, for all have the ad- 
vantages of it. Therefore the study, not only of their 
own world, but numerous others, constitutes a pleas- 
ant, instructive, and intellectually remunerative em- 
ployment. Xor is this confined and limited to mate- 



96 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

rial worlds, but reaches out and embraces the spiritual 
spheres of each. 

"Again, take the science of chemistry. It once 
only dealt with material solids, but now on Mars it 
has reached a higher plane or sphere, and the subli- 
mated substances, still possessed of modified degrees 
of matter, likewise atmospheric and spiritual sub- 
stances, come within the purview and yield obedience 
to its powerful processes of analysis. This is still and 
ever will bo an instructive and profitable field for 
those aspiring minds of the Marsians bent on the ac- 
quisition of knowledge and the understanding of the 
infinitely varied and universal laws by which all na- 
ture and the universe are governed and controlled. 

" May 22. On Mars the people are divided up into 
a very great many societies. The membership of these 
societies is not a matter of choice and volition. Here 
you have degrees of social society, and you say there 
are three grades — the lower, middle and upper. This 
is so in the deceptive seeming, but in fact you have 
many more, but you do not understand the subtle 
laws governing in their formation and diversity. You 
also have secret societies, into which you require the 
consent of a certain number to gain admission, while 
at the same time a certain other number may object. 
Certain arbitrary votes in number control the ques- 
tion of application, and by them your admission or 
rejection is determined. In your social society quite 
a different rule or policy prevails. In a certain grade 
or stratum true merit and worth are not considered 
of any moment, but wealth and pecuniary par excel- 
lence constitute the law of attraction. In other words, 
and what ought to burn your cheeks with shame, it 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 97 

matters not how morally depraved or utterly aban- 
doned to all real intrinsic worth of manhood or woman- 
hood, a large supply of the world's fleeting posses- 
sions constitutes the real standard of respectability, 
and the sure passport into the higher walks of social 
life. On Mars they have long since passed beyond 
and above this purely human, nnspiritual and unholy 
rule. There they are known and estimated as they 
really are, for they can not disguise their moral and 
spiritual status; it is read in the look, the walk, the 
thought-words, and most potently in the aura emit- 
ted, permeating and coloring the very garments worn, 
thereby disclosing by shades of color the moral, men- 
tal and spiritual degree of advancement. You have 
an old adage, which contains a very great truth, 
namely : ' Birds of a feather will flock together,' * like 
draws like.' Under the operation of an immutable 
law of attraction and repulsion the societies of Mars 
are formed, and this law, so utterly disregarded by 
embodied man on the earth, applies to and is opera- 
tive in the spiritual spheres of all the innumerable 
worlds of the vast, illimitable universe of God. And 
this law of attraction and repulsion is indiscriminate 
and recognizes no distinction on account of wealth, 
social standing or prominence anion 2* men. It deals 

CD J- O 

with spiritual laws and spiritual truths and spiritual 
things. There being different societies on Mars, 
formed and governed by this great and inexorable law 
of selection or attraction and repulsion, you see read- 
ily that their employments must of necessity and in 
some regards be quite different. 

" May 29. We have endeavored to keep before you, 
at the risk of being censured for occasional reitera- 



98 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

tion and repetition, the great primary and fundamental 
fact that all things under the divine arrangement 
advance in the ascending scale of infinite and unend- 
ing progression by regular and gradual series, and in 
equal ratio; but you must note an important fact in 
this connection, namely, that all do not at the same 
time reach the same degree of unfoldment — -some a 
little in advance of others, and so on. The question 
necessarily arises, why is this so? We only desire to 
say in answer at this time that all do not start out on 
their career of animate being at precisely the same 
time or under the same conditions, nor with the same 
or equal antenatal advantages. This carries us back 
behind our mere entrance into physical life, through 
and by the laws of human physical procreation, into 
a domain as yet unexplored, except feebly, by mortal 
man. It seems to me if men could only perceive and 
understand the grand sublimity and variety of their 
antecedent being, they would no longer be blinded to 
the future greatness and glory in store for them. This 
subject, if you ever enter upon it, you will find pro- 
lific of vast knowledge, immense and perfectly as- 
tounding revelations. But the time has not yet ar- 
rived for them. The people on Mars, like your own, 
not starting- out on life's eventful and momentous 
journey with the same or equal advantages, have 
necessarily attained unto different degrees of progress- 
ive unfoldment, and by reason of this are their differ- 
ent and somewhat differing societies formed. In the 
same circle, order or stratum of society on earth, the 
good, the bad and the indifferent associate and seem 
to harmoniously blend and assimilate. But this is 
not true in fact. The degree of perfection attained 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 99 

in moral and spiritual excellence does not govern in 
their formation, and they are therefore incongruous, 
unsatisfactory and transitory. On Mars two unequals 
in progression can not harmonize, for the law rehels, 
interposes insurmountable harriers, and will not allow 
it. Those only are associated who harmonize and re- 
semble each other, not in the accumulations of wealth, 
not in stature, not in facial expressions or outward 
physical conformation, but those who are drawn to- 
gether by a sort of soul kinship, of absolute union of 
soul feeling, sympathetic inclinations and aspirations, 
having for their basis, as of prime and first impor- 
tance, an equal degree of spiritual unfoldment. Thus 
divided and separated, there are very many different 
societies or orders, each differing in development, in- 
clinations and aspirations, they inevitably have dis- 
similar pursuits and employments, suited to tastes, 
wants and abilities, but all conspiring for the general 
good of all. 

" June 1. The people of Mars are not so large in 
stature as on your earth, nor are they as large as at 
former periods of their history. The process of pro- 
gression in casting off the gross, and also by affecting 
the laws of propagation, has materially reduced the 
present inhabitants in their physical proportions. 
Their feet, except in the lower order, are either not 
shod at all, or are covered by a very light and refined 
material substance. The nearer the spiritual the peo- 
ple become the less they are affected by grosser at- 
mospheric elements, and this is directly the opposite 
of your experience. Here the coarser the material 
make-up the better can the severer conditions of your 
temperature be borne, and the reason is plain. 



100 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" Here some are progressed, physically speaking, in 
advance of the progress of the elements, and there- 
fore they are detrimentally affected and influenced by 
them, whereas on Mars a regular advance in develop- 
ment has been reached, and all things now smoothly 
and evenly pass under the operations of the law. 
After awhile the same law will commence to thus 
orderly and regularly operate with you when this 
difficulty will he happily overcome. The grandest 
achievement made by progression on Mars has pro- 
duced the greatest result in the formation of the 
heads of the people. Phrenology here on earth is 
but feebly and imperfectly understood, although there 
is in it a grand and most salutary scientific truth. 
Here, however, as yet, you have the angular and un- 
even formation of the cranium, with its attendant 
angularity of temperament and disposition. On Mars 
the heads are so exquisitely formed and so harmo- 
nious in the external, and so perfectly symmetrical, 
that yon observe and note it at first glance, and fol- 
lowing this high and beautiful development is dis- 
covered a degree of wisdom and learning perfectly 
astonishing to a visitor from a foreign, though neigh- 
boring planet. The hair on these magnificent heads 
is of a fiber and texture resembling your finest silk, 
and from under a beautiful arched brow you behold 
a mild yet brilliant eve, beaming with intelligence 
and affection, and they can convey thoughts and ideas 
without the use of words or the intervention of audi- 
ble sound. 

"June 5. Hundreds, yea, thousands of years ago, 
the development of mind on the planet Mars was ex- 
traordinarw and vou can conceive what it must be 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 101 

now. Many causes, of course, conspired and aided 
in bringing about this result. The natural process of 
development would have ultimately accomplished it 
unassisted by other agencies, but a wise and humane 
governmental system was adopted, originated in the 
spirit world, which constituted a complete innovation 
upon and revolution in previous systems, and which 
gave a marked impetus to the growth and advance- 
ment of mind, and which produced also a wonderful 
improvement in the physical constitutions of succeed- 
ing generations. That system consisted of a legisla- 
tive policy of the controlling government, rigidly and 
un exception ally enforced, which provided that all 
children born into physical life should be given up 
and relinquished to the control and direction of the 
government, and by the government reared, educated, 
and prepared for the duties and requirements of life. 
Elaborate buildings, elaborately and artistically em- 
bellished and beautified were constructed at proper 
and convenient locations, where at a certain period 
of gestation, very early indeed, the expectant mother 
was taken and kept until a certain and proper time 
after parturition, when the mother was discharged 
and restored to freedom, and the new-born babe was 
taken charge of, raised and maintained by the foster- 
ing care of the government. Between the period of 
conception and parturition, the mother was contin- 
ually kept under the most elevating influences, both 
of body and mind. Her soul was kept enraptured by 
the ennobling influences of music, and such music, of 
which you as yet have no conception. This pro- 
duced in the mother the desired condition of har- 
mony, which had a corresponding efFoct upon the little 



102 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

one concealed from mortal view. Twice or thrica a 
week lecturers, under the pay and patronage of the 
government, visited these asylums and discoursed to 
the inmates on scientific, literary, and moral subjects. 
"June 8. These discourses were not only designed 
but efficacious in directing the minds and hearts of 
the auditors into the most elevating and progressively 
intellectual channels, and left their inevitable and un- 
failing impress upon the forthcoming offspring. In 
addition works of art, rare paintings, and exhibitions 
of sculpture were at certain times presented for in- 
spection, study, and reflection, inspiring noble 
thoughts of the sublime and beautiful. Artists of 
superior attainments and national renown occasion- 
ally visited these places and gave exhibitions of their 
skill in transferring to canvas, in an impromptu man- 
ner, their loftiest conceptions of the beautiful in land- 
scapes, scenes, etc., which were of the rarest beauty 
of design. Books treating of the noblest subjects 
were placed within ready reach and convenient ac- 
cess, and the inmates read them with avidity and 
delight. They understood that they were thus pre- 
paring the new generations, as yet unushered into 
life, to take their places, and that their success largely 
depended on the assiduity with which they availed 
themselves of their opportunities. The government, 
as before stated, took charge of the young and trained 
and educated them in art, music, and the sciences, 
and the result was soon manifest in producing a race 
of intellectual giants, and distinguished for their 
ability in the arts and sciences, and the benevolence 
or their religious natures. And to-day you can not 
find a man or woman of adult age who is not per- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. . 103 

fectly versed in all the higher branches of learning, 
and eminently proficient in music. If a thousand of 
them could be bodily transferred to America, and with 
her exceptional advantages, and live, they would soon, 
by the sheer force of intellect, rule this world, and 
lift it morally and intellectually upon a plane that 
would dazzle you to behold. And yet, my dear 
friend, it is laid up in the womb of time that you of 
earth shall reach this sublime height. 

" The denizens of earth may wonder at and disbe- 
lieve these relations, but nevertheless they are as true 
as that the eternal God is truth. They point to the 
destiny in store for the future inhabitants of earth, 
and intimate to poor disheartened mortals the cer- 
tainty and greatness of the future, in which they are 
to figure in no mean way nor act no inconsequential 
part. 

" July 10. On Mars the doctrine of discrimination 
on the score of sex was never taught, but the equal- 
ity of the sexes has always been recognized. This 
indiscrimination has always been operative in employ- 
ments and in the choosing of persons to fill official 
station at a period of their history when officers were 
paid out of the public exchequer for their services. 
Of course, at this time when office is administered 
without compensation the rule remains undisturbed. 
Your troubles, that is, many of them, in the present 
and past have arisen either from a misunderstanding 
of the truth or a misapplication of it and its require- 
ments. Can it be rationally maintained that truth 
and justice require a discrimination to be made ad- 
verse to the female ? If so, there must be ample rea- 
sons for it, and what are they? We are told that, 



104 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

comparatively speaking, woman is the weaker. Is 
this true? and if so, pray tell wherein? Yon an- 
swer physically, and thus you would establish her 
status in all other regards, by the rule of mere brute 
force, powers of endurance, and physical capabilities. 
Do you not know that the ox and the horse, for pre- 
cisely the same reason, can largely discount you ? Do 
you not realize that by this argument you are appeal- 
ing to the lowest element of your nature, that which 
only distinguishes you as connected with matter, and 
which as we have already seen, is transitory and fleet- 
ing? Pray lift the subject upon a higher and nobler 
plane and then let us have your arguments and reason- 
ing. Is man superior to woman morally ? Now, if you 
are honest, you must blush. In morals, man superior 
to woman ! AYe all know this is not true. And do 
morals count for naught in the scale of being? In 
what pertains to the liner sensibilities and spiritual 
pureties is woman inferior? If not, are these of no 
moment compared with mere physical brute force? 
Do women survive death as men do ; if so, which will 
be of greatest value in the beautiful hereafter — brute 
force and physical prowess, which only have exist- 
ence in the lower realms of the spiritual world, or 
those finer spiritual qualities possessed by woman in 
a much higher degree than by man as they manifest 
in embodied life, and which belong to the higher 
spiritual sphere of being in the other life? 

" Beware, oh man, how you treat angelic woman, 
for the future will teach you many lessons, brought 
about by your arbitrary and utterly indefensible as- 
sumptions and arrogations, among which will be 
classed your illiberal and unjust treatment of woman. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 105 

She is your equal, and your great weakness is in with- 
holding it from her. 

"July 13. In giving briefly and very imperfectly 
a sketch of what I saw and learned on the planet Mars 
I have been compelled necessarily to omit many things, 
among other reasons, because they would not only be 
not believed, but in many instances incite unfavora- 
ble comments, if not absolute ridicule. I am not un- 
conscious of the fact that many things contained in 
the foregoing narrative, although literally true, will 
meet with unfavorable criticism, but I have not been 
writing to please or to avoid censure, but to deliver 
the truth, much of which I am aware is far in advance 
of the age in which you now live on the planet earth. 
But it has been thought that a little work of this 
kind would be kindly received and amiably treated by 
at least progressed minds — those who had inspiration- 
ally and intuitively drank at the fountain of spiritual 
wisdom and spiritual things ; and, as to others, it was 
hoped it might cause them to think it possible, if not 
probable, that man is something more than a mere 
fleeting bauble, a mere creature of a moment. 

" To awaken in man the consciousness of the au- 
gustness of his being, and the mighty destiny before 
and awaiting its development, can not fail in this 
transition period, when you are passing from old theo- 
logical theories and religious systems into something 
better, higher, holier, to subserve great and lasting 
good. In this transition process the great effort is to 
be made to direct the great body of advancing minds 
into the right channels, for in many cases the tend- 
ency is found to be toward the cold barrenness of ma- 
terialism . 



106 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" The question that is to confront you in the future 
is not in regard to creeds and dogmas, for they are 
passing away, but whether these few fleeting years 
of physically embodied life is the all of your being, 
whether death is the setting forever of the bright star 
of our being in the night and gloom of ended exist- 
ence, or whether there is for man a glorious life of 
endless progress beyond the life and transitory scenes 
of physical embodiment. 

" July 14. With this my labors for the present end. 
The effort has been more irksome than you may con- 
ceive. The difficulties attending the act of commu- 
nicatino- are more numerous and troublesome than 

o 

the world would allow if they were fully explained. 
But we have done the best we could. 

" To you, Mr. Helleberg, I return my thanks and 
the thanks of those co-operating with me, for the pa- 
tience, earnestness and honesty which have character- 
ized your association with us in this work. Our 
blessings rest upon you, and be assured that your 
greatest reward will be in the happy land which your 
aged footsteps are n earing. We shall shield and bless 
you here, and crown you in the land of immortal 
beatitudes. 

" We would be ungrateful beyond measure not to 
speak in acknowledgment of the virtues and noble 
qualities of the medium, through whose superbly de- 
veloped medial powers we have been enabled to speak 
to the world. In consequence of our frequent con- 
tact with her noble and pure soul our first admiration 
for her has grown into the deepest, truest and holiest 
affection. Heaven bless her in all her ways and walks. 
Her noble band of spirits, tireless, indefatigable and 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 107 

upright, Lave rendered us vast assistance, without 
which we could not have succeeded in the slightest 
degree. They are capable, true and honest, and able 
to guard and protect their instrument, before whom 
is a great future career of usefulness, and she may 
confidently trust them in all things. 

" To those who may read my feeble lines I bespeak 
that charity you would like extended to you. Judge 
not harshly, but with generous impulse. You arc in 
the realm of crude materiality, in the tenement of 
flesh, influenced more or less by many disadvanta- 
geous surroundings, which are not spiritually inspir- 
ing or elevating, but by and by you will survive and 
pass beyond them. Let me entreat you to study and 
learn of the great law of progression, which we have 
constantly endeavored to keep before you. In that 
law and its manifold manifestations reside all wisdom, 
love and truth. It is that law that assures you future 
greatness and happiness, and will work out for you a 
destiny, the grandeur and glory of which you can but 
faintly comprehend and know. You can not die. 
You must live forever. You can not retrace your 
steps, nor recede in the development of your being; 
neither can you stand still. Therefore you must move 
forward, onward and upward, forever and forever. 

" Fredrika Ehrexborg." 



108 SPIRIT COMxMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER XL 

COMMUNICATIONS FROM EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 

The following communications, purporting to come 
from the spirit of Emanuel Swedenborg, at Mrs. 
Green's, are arranged in the order of their reception : 

September 26, 1881 : 

" I greet you ; good morning. You hail from dear 
old Sweden, my native land. The same native blood 
that coursed through my veins flows through yours. 
For a long time I have realized that your thoughts 
have been on me and the doctrines I taught on earth, 
some of which I would gladly recant. In my day noth- 
ing else could have been projected through my braiu, 
and nothing less violent, though more truthful, would 
have engaged attention or commanded respect. My 
writings, as I now see them, were a strange comming- 
ling of truth and error, though I believe with truth 
largely predominant. I want the world, especially 
my followers, the disciples of the Church of New Jeru- 
salem, to eliminate, in the interest of truth, the errors 
and crudities that unwittingly, though reverentially, 
crept into my theological writings. The hells as I 
portrayed them I now know were magnified into un- 
due and absurd proportions, colored and distorted by 
my own preconceived notions, and, moreover, largely 
attributable to the religious temper and theologic 
thought of the time in which I wrote. Tell your good 
companion and others of like convictions to discard 
at once and fearlessly my unwarranted denunciation 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 109 

against holding intercourse with the inhabitants of 

the spiritual world, I misapprehended, and, alas, 
misinterpreted the holy visions given me. 1 was al- 
lowed to sec prophetically that the two worlds would 
be brought into close communicating relations, and I 
ought to have seen farther — that it would occur 
through and by the permission and co-operative 
agency of God and his laws, and ought not therefore 
to be interdicted. This has given me vast annoyance, 
and I am very solicitous indeed that this shall be 
righted. Hold fast to this spiritualism, for therein 
only can be found light and love and wisdom. My 
power to maintain control is weakening, and I must 
close for the present. I will meet you here again. 
Good bye. Emanuel Swedenborg." 

October 3, 1881 

" In my communication a week ago I referred, not 
incidentally, but purposely, to my followers of the 
Church of the S"ew Jerusalem. It is gratifying to 
me to know that they are in the main honest, faith- 
ful and intelligent people ; but I regret that they have 
deemed it proper to resolve themselves into an ex- 
clusive sect ; for, disguise it as you may, all sects are 
more or less exclusive. Among the many curses that 
afflict your mortal humanity, none are to be more de- 
plored than sectarianism and dogmatic theology. Bo 
you know that in the most ambitious moments of my 
earthly career, much less in the lofty moods of my 
medial inspiration, I never dreamed that I was to 
become the founder of a religious sect, especially one 
based on dogmatic formulas. The affirmations of 
material science now no longer question that in all 



110 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

organized structures reside the underlying, all-pervad- 
ing and continually operating elements. Disintegra- 
tion, decay and ultimate destruction of the organized 
form apply with equal and unerring certainty to ec- 
clesiastical bodies. Modern spiritualism in this, that 
it is specifically and rigidly scientific, clustering beau- 
teously around the family hearthstone, adorning and 
hallowing the family altar, may be distinguished by its 
infinite superiority to all other systems, it having no 
creed to establish, and steadfastly repelling all at- 
tempts at organization, is destined to survive the 
wreck and demolition of all theological teaching 
standing in antagonistic relations to it ; and this God- 
given, heaven-inspiring humanity, embracing soul- 
uplifting spiritualism, is to become the universal re- 
ligion of mankind. I will continue to administer to 
your wants and remove the scales from the eyes of the 
people, especially my followers. More anon. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg." 

On October 17, 1881, the following communication 
appeared on the slate : 

" The blessings of the most high God and the ben- 
ediction of His holy angels and spirits on you and 
yours. What I most desire to say to you to-day is 
that since our last interview here I have participated 
with others in a discussion relative to a recent scien- 
tific discovery in the spirit world which, when im- 
parted to the world of embodied man, will strike the 
learned savants of your life with mingled feelings of 
awe and consternation. Our recent experiments were 
exceedingly satisfactory, and the questions that re- 
main open are, when, to who and through whom shall 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. Ill 

it be given to the children of" earth. The general ex- 
pression of our society favored some time towards the 
close of the coming year as best adapted. In this 
view I concurred, for many reasons. My revered 
friend, let me say to you to-day, with great and pos- 
itive emphasis, that the year 1882, earth time, will be 
the most marvelous year of the world's history, and 
will be characterized by the most stupendous events 
in all the circling centuries of past time. In that 
year and the succeeding one astounding spiritual rev- 
elations will be made to the denizens of this earth, 
utterly upsetting old, effete theological doctrines, and 
mercilessly demolishing now considered well estab-. 
lished scientific conclusions, and your scientists' tests, 
self-complacent and arrogant in their pretensions, 
and possessed most fully of the spirit of vaulted am- 
bition, the creation of their self-conceit, will awake 
to the consciousness that they have been mere figures 
in scientific research, and that on many subjects may 
have been so superficial, as not to penetrate beyond 
the mere shadows and surface of things. I promise 
you that when the proper time arrives for this dis- 
closure you shall not be overlooked or neglected. 
Bound to you in fraternal relation of a common 
brotherhood, embracing in grand reciprocation the in- 
habitants of both the mundane and supermundane 
worlds, I am yours, devoted for the truth, 

" Emanuel Swedenboro." 

June 12, 1882 

"If we concede for the sake of argument that there 
really exists a literal hell, as depicted by theological 
teaching, and which constitutes an article of faith in 



112 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

most of the Christian sects, we are forced to inquire 
(and it is a legitimate subject of inquiry from the as- 
sumed premises), Was hell made for man, or man for 
hell? and this involves the question of duration of 
existence in point of time antecedent. Whichever 
way we determine, and our determination of the ques- 
tion from a terrestrial standpoint can only arise from 
speculation and conjecture, and not from proofs, one 
conclusion we can not escape, namely, the malevo- 
lence of the author. If hell was established prior to 
the time when the fiat went forth bringing man into 
being, and was designed for his abode and accommo- 
dation, we can not reconcile the goodness of the Lord 
with such utterly unjust and malevolent purpose, be- 
cause to concede this much admits the possession of 
sufficiency of power to have ordered otherwise, which 
precludes impotency and concludes the will and pur- 
pose to so order and arrange. 

" If the creation of hell and man as arbitrary acts 
of the Deity was coeval, then the same conclusion in- 
evitably follows, before and behind the act of these 
creations resided in the Lord the power to have dif- 
ferently ordered; hence we must assume that the 
simultaneous creation of hell and man was predeter- 
mined, and in accordance with the will-pleasure and 
purpose of the Creator. 

" If, furthermore, man was first created without 
any reference to hell or any preconceived purpose or 
expectancy to establish it, and that its creation was 
necessitated from man's unexpected disobedience, and 
as the only proper means of gratifying the vengeance 
of an insulted God, then we unwittingly and in a very 
silly way declare the absence of foreknowledge in the 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 113 

Lord, and degrade him to the level of a puny, pas- 
sionate man. 

" To assume any of these puerile positions to he 
true is to assume that the Lord, however august in 
power, and the physical, mental and spiritual ability 
to order and to direct, is nevertheless a moral weak- 
ling, and wholly devoid of moral excellence in degree 
superior to the meanest of his creatures." 

June-15, 1882: 

" If hell exists, it is plain to be seen there was a 
necessity for it. If created before man, there was no 
necessity for its existence, for the Lord is governed 
by the idea of uses, and there was present no use for 
it. Will it be maintained that the Lord would create 
any thing without a use and wise purpose ? It is the 
uses of things that so signally distinguish his crea- 

«/ o 

tive and moral governments. 

'• If it is said in reply that when hell was fashioned 
and established the Lord had in contemplation the 
creation of man, and that it was to be subsequently 
rendered useful as a place of punishment for disobe- 
dience, which implies that the Lord knew in advance 
of man's creation that he would be disobedient, then, 
oh, man, you are surely in the hands and under the 
power of a merciless demon, falsely called God. If 
this indeed is the true character of our Lord, then 
truly may his weak and helpless children bow their 
heads in sorrow and despair. 

" These teachers of false theology, these false inter- 
preters of simple truth, these false prophets of a false 
conception, affirm that this appalling hell, offspring 
of a monster creative agency, is a fixed location some- 



114 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

where, which they have the candor to say, they know 
not. 

a The theologians perceiving throughout the vast 
domain of universal nature two confronting opposites 
or extremes, and that there scheme must fall if hell 
were left alone to be the final destiny of the entire 
human family, erect another falsity and construct an- 
other place or harbor for the sojourners and pilgrims 
of earth, and consequently they say that the Lord has 
established somewhere in space a heaven, the location 
of which, although a locality, can not be ascertained. 

" The same questions, with equal propriety, might 
be propounded in reference to heaven and the same 
conclusions follow. Was it made for man or man 
for it ? Was it made before or after man was made? 
Where is it situate; who go there and why do they 
go there, and for what purpose? If the theologians 
answer these pertinent questions in harmony with 
their creeds, they would make my friend John Cal- 
vin, who accompanied me here this morning and is 
now standing by my side, blush with shame. He now, 
as a noble spirit, pities the ignorance and credulity 
that characterized him in his religious frenzy when 
in the form, and the credulity and weakness of his 
followers." 

June 19, 1882: 

" The original conception of a literal local heaven 
and hell was a feeble monstrosity and far exceed- 
ing the intuitions and anticipations of its origin- 
ators, it has assumed huge and alarming propor- 
tions. Originally it was treated either as a human 
created joke, or as a wild vagary of the imagination, 
and in both cases without even the shadow of a found- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 115 

ation in fact. But as time moved along it began to 
grow seriously in the minds of the morbidly curious 
and credulously constituted, and it found many earn- 
est advocates and believers, and they were not alto- 
gether limited to the ignorant. Had this been the 
case it would have been harmless and short-lived. The 
poet in depicting the career of vice aptly illustrates 
the history of this conception : 

' ' Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, 
As to be dreaded needs to he seen. 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first pity, then endure, and then embrace.' " 

" I unhappily lived in a clay when it had been largely 
embraced. Had I lived in the day when it was con- 
ceived and promulgated, or approximately near it 
and been possessed of the physical, mental and spirit- 
ual organization with which I was favored in earth 
life, I would have undoubtedly earnestly combated it. 
But in my time it had grown into prominence and 
general' acceptance among Christian sects, including 
the Lutheran, to which I adhered before my spiritual 
illumination ; and hence while my spiritual meclium- 
istic unfoldment, mental adaptabilities and capabili- 
ties would not allow me to accept the literal teaching 
of purblind theology on the subject, I was disqualified 
from perceiving and promulgating the real truth. 
I endeavored, however, to do what the theologians 
have never attempted, namely, to assign reasons for 
the existence of heavens and hells in justification and 
defense of the Lord. The groundlessness of my phil- 
osophy and the impotency of my reasoning I was 
unable to understand until the lapse of years after 



116 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



my entrance into the spiritual world, and then only by 
slow and discreet degrees. Step by step only did I 
receive the influx of spiritual light and truth, opening 
my eyes to the truth and impressing my soul with the 
consciousness of the errors and falsities of my teach- 
ings when on the earth embodied. 

" In the spiritual world we are not allowed to per- 
ceive truth except by degrees and interior growth, 
and only as we are enabled to outgrow and disown 
error. Our errors, whether of acts and deeds com- 
mitted, duties omitted, or false theories, either taught 
or believed by us when in the form, follow us to the 
spiritual world and cling to us with a perfectly amaz- 
ing and persistent tenacity, and this constitutes hell 
and it exists nowhere else." 

June 22, 1882: 

" In my philosophy of correspondences there was 
much truth, with here and there a shade of error. 
It was argumentative, speculative, and character- 
ized by analagous reasoning, but not sufficiently 
intuitive to reach the full height of spiritual induc- 
tion. But whatever errors may have crept into this 
department of my writings, they have been compara- 
tively harmless. 

" What has given me the greatest annoyance since 
my departure from the flesh, or rather since I have 
better understood the subject ; and what has given 
me the greatest anxiety to have eradicated from the 
minds of those who read mebelievingly, are my teach- 
ings on the subject of the hells in the spiritual world. 
I desire here to lay down a proposition I know to be 
true, whoever may state to the contrary, namely : No 
embodied spirit was ever enabled, no matter how 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 117 

highly developed the organism of the subject, to leave 
the body, go into the spiritual spheres, undergo ex- 
periences there, behold scenes, hold converse with 
their inhabitants, witness events and occurrences 
transpiring there, then return to the body, bring it 
back into normal action, and then correctly and in 
detail and in purity of narrative give to the world 
through the physical organism of the body, what it 
had seen, heard, and witnessed, during its temporary 
absence. If it were otherwise, and the spiritual world 
a real, fixed and objective reality, all who visited it 
in spirit during physical embodiment, would on re- 
turning and reanimating the body with the returning 
spiritual influx impart the same information and re- 
cite the same story. The directly opposite of this is 
true, and settles the question irrevocably in the nega- 
tive as to the absolute reliability of knowledge im- 
parted by spirits while inhabiting the natural body, 
although permitted by the operation of a certain law 
which is neither wholly spiritual nor physical, but a 
combination of both, to leave for a short period its 
tenement of flesh. Even then the spirit entire does 
not vacate the body, even for an instant of time, for 
if it did life in the body would become immediately 
extinct. However far the consciousness of the spirit 
may wander away from its home in the material 
house it must maintain an inseparable connection with 
it. at least by a portion of the magnetism of itself. 
Therefore during its visits away it is nevertheless all 
the while connected with the body, and hampered and 
fettered by it, and more or less governed by its laws 
and conditions. It can not, therefore, on returning, 
and it has never been wholly absent, give fully, 



118 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

purely, and correctly its spiritual observations and 
experiences. 

" When I visited the spiritual world during my era- 
bodied life I was governed by this same law and sub- 
jected to the same limitations, and hence what I re- 
lated was not entitled to full credence and belief. So 
it has been in all cases of trance in the past, and will 
continue to be in the future for ages yet to come. In 
my next I shall speak of some instances illustrative 
of this truth." 

June 26, 188£ : 

".As illustrative of the proposition submitted in my 
last I will only mention a few among numerous in- 
stances. 

" The book of Revelations states that John visited 
the Isle of Patmos on the Lord's clay, and was then 
and there in the spirit. (I should have used the ex- 
pression 'entranced' or 'trance state,' or that 'the 
Lord permitted me to see.') While thus in the spirit 
or trance state he was taken to the heavens. After 
resuming his normal condition in the body he essays 
to write out what he thinks he saw, or so much of it 
as he is enabled to retain in memory, and call up after 
again fully controlling the physical body. He says 
that he saw beasts worshiping around the throne of 
God, and that he saw a beast rise out of the sea with 
seven heads and ten horns; that a book written in 
heaven was handed him with the command that he 
eat it, which he assures us he did, etc. Does any one 
believe that these were veritable occurrences, ' that 
there were beasts in heaven full of heavenly love, 
evinced in worshiping before the throne, and that 
books were written in heaven for men to eat? The 



SPIRIT COMMTJKICATI0NS. 119 

Koran of Mahomet is an improvement od this, for it 
was not eaten, but preserved for use. 

" Now, I want to say to the world, especially the 
New Church people, that my visions of the hells had 
no more foundation in fact than John's beasts, dragons 
and gol dm candlesticks. The difference between 
John and myself, that is, the important difference, 
consisted in the fact that John's symbolic visions 
were explained to be unrealities, while I was left to 
believe mine to be absolute verities. In fact one was 
as unreal as the other, and only forcibly illustrates 
the unreliability of this mode of deriving true and 
genuine spiritual knowledge. 

" Your own Andrew Jackson Davis is another in- 
stance corroborative of my proposition. He avers 
that he has been, not 'in the spirit,' like John, nor 
' in tlfe trance state,' like myself, but, in more aesthetic 
phraseology, ' in the superior state.' They all prac- 
tically mean the same thing. Davis says he located 
while in the ' superior state ' the spirit world proper, 
and found it to be in or beyond the ' milky way,' thus 
inflicting a cruel blow upon the science of astronomy. 
Astronomy teaches, and correctly, too, as every well 
informed spirit knows, that the ' milky way' is a vast 
assemblage or constellation of suns, worlds and sys- 
tems of solar worlds, and yet Mr. Davis was honest. 

"Judge John "Worth Edmonds, in his earlier me- 
diumship and spiritualistic experiences, visited the 
other world in spirit, and his description of the hells 
recorded in his work entitled 'Spiritualism,' was 
somewhat analagous to mine, and very much in har- 
mony with it. His temperament, mental methods 
and spiritual development were not very dissimilar 



120 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

to mine, and be had been previously as thoroughly 
grounded in Calvinism as I had been in Lutheranism. 
80 it was but natural that we should see and inter- 
pret much alike. Yet in final conclusions we were in 
absolute antagonism, differing fully as widely as the 
poles, or separated in distance by terrestrial measure- 
ment. 

" Truth can not dissemble nor assume deceptive 
garbs, and all seeing the same things differently, 
proves that neither could be relied upon, for if they 
had been true and genuine verities, all would have 
seen and reported them alike." 

June 29, 1882 : 

" Since I have been inducted into higher light and 
blessed with the true knowledge I have been utterly 
amazed in reviewing my writings, resulting in the 
discovery of two facts, namely, their prolixity in mat- 
ter and stupendousness in folly. It seems to me now 
as almost utterly incredible that in my efforts at the 
spiritual interpretation of the scriptures I should have 
written so many absolutely silly and unmeaning things. 
It becomes my doty, and I can not be happy without 
it, to make this declaration, however humiliating it 
may be to me, viewed from your standpoint, but the 
truth and the peace, happiness and progress of my 
spirit require it. ~No work was ever written but what 
an ingenious metaphysician might not twist out of 
its every paragraph an assumed interior and myste- 
rious meaning. 

" But, after all, I was fortuitous in advancing many 
ennobling and wholesome truths. In all that I wrote 
I take greater pride and unto myself much rejoicing 
in my assaults upon the Lutheran doctrine of justifi- 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 121 

cation by faith alone, and in my enjoining love to the 
neighbor. However, to believe in and teach the doc- 
trine of love one to another, or 'love thy neighbor as 
thyself,' does not require an inspiration from heaven. 
It is the doctrine taught by universal nature and in- 
worked in the web and woof of human nature. To 
realize and understand it we have only to become 
even partially civilized and to commune with nature 
and ourselves. 

" A great portion of my life has been devoted to 
secular pursuits and the study of natural science. I 
also possessed some inventive genius, and during my 
purely secular career I was always contemplating, by 
silent meditation, employing the early part of my life 
in the study of the properties of the human soul and 
its relation to the Lord -and human life. Therefore 
when I came to engage the subject, it was not a spon- 
taneous impulsion to it, as some have supposed, al- 
though it was immediately attended and character- 
ized by a degree of spiritual illumination and inspi- 
ration. I did not approach the examination of the 
subject wholly free and untrammeled by prejudice 
and u ninfluenced by bias. I had previously conceived 
thoroughly deep convictions relating to this subject, 
and I now know no amount of spiritual aid could 
have possibly eradicated them sufficiently to have al- 
lowed the presentation of the plain, unadulterated 
truth. 

" Oh, how effectually are we enslaved by education, 
association and mental training. The man who can 
overcome them in the pursuit of truth is far superior 
in all that goes to make up true manhood to the 
crowned heads and pampered ones of earth ; yea, he 



122 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

is not only grand and noble in the full stature of his 
manhood, but he is more — he is godlike." 

July 3,1882: 

" I do not affirm the non-existence of heaven and 
hell, but what I would be understood as affirming is 
their non-existence as separate, independent and fixed 
localities. If you will interpret heaven to mean hap- 
piness, and hell its opposite, that is, misery, we can 
fully agree, for this interpretation implies what is ver- 
itably true, namely, that they are conditions, and not 
localities. As conditions they not only exist in the 
spiritual world, but also in the sensual or material, 
and apply to both embodied and disembodied man. 

"It is related that Jesus said, 'The kingdom of 
heaven is within you,' and never was truth more com- 
pletely and potently uttered. At the time he was 
talking to men in the body, and to them lie declares, 
' The kingdom of heaven is within you.'' 

" If he is entitled to credit as an authority on the 
subject, and Christians certainly will not gainsay it, 
then it is quite clear that heaven, being in the human, 
spiritual beings is as a locality nowhere else. And 
inasmuch as it could not exist in the human being as 
a location, for this would give us millions upon in- 
numerable millions of localized heavens, one for each 
breathing human embodied man, to become destroyed 
at the death of each, which is too absurd to be seri- 
ously discussed, it must necessarily follow, and as 
clear as the sunlight of heaven, that whatever that 
kingdom may in fact be, it is simply and absolutely a 
condition. And we can therefore readily see that as 
a condition, different with every human being, owing 
to the moral status and spiritual development of each, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 123 

it perpetuates itself as truly aucl fully as does the 
spirit itself survive the dissolution of the aggregated 
physical atoms and forces of the material body, and 
moreover accompanies the real man into the spiritual 
world. So with its opposite — hell. 

"If this is conceded, and no Christian can deny it 
with any degree of consistency, tor the moment he 
does he dishonors Jesus as an authority, then the 
whole foundation of a local permanent hell is swept 
away, and the loathsome superstructure erected there- 
upon falls to the ground forever. 

' "Heaven and hell, viewed in any sense, are oppo- 
sites, and wherever they exist they must exist simul- 
taneously, for some are in heaven and some in hell 
all the time, and therefore if the kingdom of heaven 
is in the children of men, so also must be the king- 
dom of hell, or it does not exist at all. 

" With my limited power I can not elaborate this 
point, or even present it as I should like to, and you 
must be content with a bare and imperfect statement.' 7 

July 6, 1882 : 

" Before the mythologists of antiquity had con- 
structed a hell they had on their hands a personal, in- 
dividualized spirit of evil, known as the serpent or 
satan, and more modernly as the devil. Investing 
this nrythological creature with all the distinguishing 
attributes of the Lord, save that of goodness, they 
must have a localized place of sufficient capacity, and 
properly arranged for the enjoyment by him of the 
fruits of his labors. Divesting him of all goodness 
2>er se, the hell of their creation must necessarily rep- 
resent his newly-acquired condition of total deprav- 
ity, for previously he had been an angel in heaven, 



124 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

and must possess the proper and sufficient elements to 
enable him to gratify his hatred of the Lord in the 
punishment of his children. It was but natural in 
that day that the element of fire should be chosen, as 
it was supposed to be the most destructive element in 
nature, and best calculated in its very nature to in- 
duce the most intense and excruciating suffering to 
physical and material bodies possessed of the ani- 
mating principle of animal life. In their unspiritual 
and ignorant state they supposed and belieyed that 
the bodies in the other world would be similar to those 
in this, and therefore subject to similar effects from 
heat and fire. What a monstrous conception, and 
how utterly inexplicable that it should ever have been 
believed. Even John the Eevelator took a material 
view of hell, and described it as a ' lake of fire and 
brimstone.' 

" I was compelled, or rather impelled, from reason 
or from experiences sufficiently clear, in my frequent 
moods or states of spiritual exaltation to depart from 
this grossly materialistic view. While my hells were 
in the plural, yet I fell into nearly as great error in 
my creations. They were the progeny of imperfect 
visions, imperfectly understood and grossly erroneous 
in their relation. 

" You have only to think a moment seriously to 
discover the utter folly of my hells, and I will only 
present one instance among many equally absurd. 
You will find in my ' memorable relations' that I 
spoke of a certain class of Jews and others wading' 
through mud, quagmires and swamps, and being in- 
juriously affected by them, and this for the purposes 
of punishment. Now, the conception of a spirit, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 125 

composed largely of pure ether, wading in the mire 
and wallowing in spiritual miasmatic swamps and 
filthy dirt, is only equaled by the mythological con- 
ception believed in and advocated by Christians that 
a spirit could be effected to any degree of suffering by 
material lire and brimstone. Both conceptions are as 
false as God is true. 

" In reference to the mythological arch fiend of man- 
kind let us summarize : First an angel in heaven ; then 
a rebel ; then a war in the peaceful realms of heaven, 
instigated by this fiend; then the fall from the angelic 
state; then a transformation into a terrible and grim 
devil ; then the building of a hell for his use, conve- 
nience and felicity, and then turning over to his con- 
trol and malignant fiendishness three-fourths or more 
of poor, weak beings, creatures of an Infinite God, 
and you have fitly spoken a system that could only 
have originated in an orthodox hell, figuratively 
speaking, and by an orthodox devil, and which for 
malevolence far exceeds anything ever thought of in 
this or any other world." 

July 17,1882: 

" The bible makers having established a heaven and 
hell, with God presiding over the one and the devil 
over the other, were driven to the necessity of con- 
cocting a scheme for populating them. The God of 
their creation they representtobe possessed of infinite 
perfections and glory, and heaven the very ideal of 
grandeur and beatitude. One would very naturally 
conclude that in their scheme they would have so 
arranged that God would have had the first choice, 
and heaven the destination of the best and wisest of 
the denizens of earth. Nothing short of this could 



126 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

have so completely enamored us of the conception 
and rendered heaven devoutly to be wished for; bat 
here the arrangement in value and superlative worth 
meets with a severe set back. One of the weak and 
frail points in the scheme consists in not allowing this 
infinite God to have his own choice in selecting those 
to become consociated with him in enjoying celestial 
delights in heaven. Human nature, by the fall in the 
Garden of Eden, became weak and subjected to ma- 
lign influences with an inadequacy of repellant power 
to overcome them. The cruel authors of this system, 
while they establish their god in heaven, a far distant 
locality, and keep him there constantly occupied and 
absorbed with the music and praises of the ransomed 
few, turn the devil loose to roam at will, and invest 
him not only with the deific attribute of omnipres- 
ence, but also confer upon him the extraordinary 
power without restraint of assuming angel's garbs 
even to the deceiving of the elect. In addition they 
place under his authority and to do his bidding an 
unlimited number of smaller devils, whose services 
have been utilized by him in preying upon the peace 
and happiness of the children of this world, and in 
preparing their souls for eternal punishment and sub- 
servience to his will in the world to come." 

July 20, 1882 : ' 

" To counteract this terrible invisible influence of 
evil no power of equal potency is furnished. They 
say that God's holy spirit in conjunctive co-operation 
with the saints embodied (they mean, of course, the 
preachers and good church people) is seeking man's 
deliverance and salvation. They confess, however, 
that this agency is impotent when compared with the 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 127 

power wielded by the devil and his invisible cohorts. 
They make Jesus say substantially that the road that 
leads to heaven is narrow and circumscribed and few 
travel in it, while the road that leads to hell is broad 
and the many travel therein, i many shall be called, 
but few chosen/ etc., etc. 

" If their system be true we are forced inevitably 
to conclude that when the creative energies residing 
in man have succeeded in producing a high order of 
intellection the devil straightway captures them, leav- 
ing heaven to be peopled without the presence of the 
great and godlike in mental power. It would seem 
prudent and wise that this should have been other- 
wise arranged in order to have rendered heaven rea- 
sonably and fairly intellectual. Ko wonder, there- 
fore, that their highest conceptions of worship and 
gratitude consisted in keeping up around the throne 
of the Lord a continual musical concert, both vocal 
and instrumental. Such distinguished and illustrious 
souls as Washington, Jefferson, Webster, Clay, Lin- 
coln, Garfield, Paine, Voltaire, and others, could not 
be induced to participate for all future time in such 
exercises, for their mental constitutions were too ro- 
bust and great and their souls too much interested in 
other and more ennobling pursuits. This kind of 
heaven would not suit souls of such intellectual pro- 
portions, and the orthodox hell, if accompanied by 
suffering, would bo preferable to them, because their 
associations, at least, would be intellectual, for the 
devil is said to bo exceedingly wise, and all wise souls 
live and delight in kindred consociations." 

July 21,1882: 

" According to the orthodox scheme, heaven, hell, 



128 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

and the devil, all go together, or, in other words, they 
are inseparably connected with and belong to the 
plan. Heaven would be the destination of all with- 
out a hell and vice versa. Heaven and hell are in an- 
tagonism, and there would be no strife but by and 
through the devil, and therefore his existence is a 
necessity to this end. God is too good to take part 
in this strife, and is either indifferent or too weak to 
avert it. Even when the war in heaven, according to 
Milton, was waged between the devil and the Lord, 
with relentless fury, he would take no direct and act- 
ive part, but commissioned Michael his generalissimo. 
How could he now be expected to take an immediate 
and active part, even to save his own defenseless chil- 
dren. Earthly parents act quite differently when 
their offspring are in peril, and so do the beasts of the 
field and the fowls of the air. I am talking iron- 
ically only to show the utter folly of the whole matter. 
" In this connection did you ever think why it is 
that the devil is continually seeking the moral over- 
throw and eternal ruin of the human family ? It is 
not because he has any ill feeling for cause against 
the children of men. They have never given him any 
occasion, and as we have seen, in their helpless con- 
dition, they could not if they would. According to 
the bible and the claims of Christians they have al- 
ways done just as the devil wanted them to. He 
wanted Adam and Eve to eat the apple and they did 
so. He wanted Abraham to debauch Hagar, and after 
her ruin to turn her loose with her helpless babe on 
her bosom amid the wilds of the wilderness of Beer- 
sheba, and Abraham did so. He wanted Noah to drink 
of the wine and become drunken, and Noah hesitated 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 129 

not, etc. So in fact the assumption can not be main- 
tained that the devil in capturing nine-tenths of the 
human family is actuated by any malignant feeling 
towards his victims. The reason lies elsewhere. We 
are assured by the bible theologians and their coad- 
jutors that the devil is solely actuated by his intense 
hatred of the Lord and the purpose of wreaking ven- 
geance upon him for banishing him from heaven and 
the angelic state. If this is true common justice and 
sympathy for the suffering of the unoffending im- 
pose most seriously the duty upon the Lord, either to 
conciliate the devil in the interest of harmony, peace 
and concord, and to save his helpless children, or de- 
stroy outright this malignant enemy of his. If he 
will do neither, nor arrest him in his diabolical work, 
then truly are we justified not only in withholding 
homage from him, but also in regarding him equally 
at enmity with our welfare and a party (partic-eps 
crimirds) in causing our sufferings and preparing our 
eternal doom." 

July 27, 1882 : 

" Why seriously discuss questions that are fast 
fading out of sight? The advancement of mind and 
the development of spiritual discernment are on the 
eve of relegating old antiquated theories and ideas to 
the past ages of heathen darkness, where they prop- 
erly belong. Total depravity throwing its dark man- 
tle over tender infancy — parent of the doctrine of in- 
fant damnation — is no longer taught or believed by 
enlightened clergymen and their followers. It only 
has a sickly foothold where the people are spiritually 
dominated by an ignorant or pusillanimous priest- 
hood. Why, therefore, seek to revive by serious dis- 



130 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

cussion any interest in dogmas now almost inanimate 
and staggering to their final fall and eternal sleep. 
Let them die serenely if they can, and be buried out 
of sight without pomp or regret. We have questions 
of greater moment and of much more value to man- 
kind, and to them let us address ourselves. All things 
are not only progressive but eternally progressing. 
Must we therefore resolve that systems of religion 
and theological dogmas are finished and settled for- 
ever. If so, when did this divinely appointed con- 
summation take place ? It certainly, if true, must be 
an event of recent date. By whom settled, how and 
when ? Certainly not by the old Romish Church and 
the hierarchy established at Nice and Laodicia, for 
their history since has been characterized by quarrels 
and dissensions, which at times have threatened their 
very existence. And certainly no one will seriously 
maintain that they have reached the high altitude of 
final and definite settlement by Luther, Calvin and 
others in their departure from the original faith. Some 
of the articles of faith of these have either been dis- 
carded or quietly abandoned, and those left have been 
modified, and are scarcely an improvement on the 
originals. In candidly looking over the whole field 
among the religious sects now extant, only one thing 
is discovered to be mutually agreed upon, and that is 
that man lives after death. We hardly need to stop 
to except those semi-materialistic Christians who 
claim that a future existence at all depends wholly 
on the physical resurrection of the material body at 
some vague and indefinite period of future time. This 
doctrine is so unscientific and so disconsonant with 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 131 

reason that we pass it by with a mere reference 
to it." 

July 28, 1882 : 

"The Catholics have three states for the dead, 
Heaven, Hell and Purgatory; the thorough orthodox 
Protestants two, striking out purgatory; while the 
Universalists insist on expunging hell from the cata- 
logue. Some will have one God, and others a trinity 
of them. But they differ materially as to the course 
to pursue in order to obtain the divine favor, holy 
unction and saving grace of the Lord. Here they are 
put to the severest test. It is infinitely of less moment 
to ascertain how many gods rule above, or how many 
states of the dead, as it is to know how to reach the 
much desired haven of peace and happiness in the 
eternal world. 

" A prudent man would be comparatively indiffer- 
ent as to how many ruling sovereigns over the desti- 
nies of man, or how many locations of consignment 
for their souls, so he is enabled to attain unto the 
highest good, and this consideration more imperatively 
absorbs his attention. Knowledge of the former would 
be valueless without knowledge of the/ latter. And 
hence in seeking to become familiar with the latter is 
where he becomes lost in the labyrinthian mazes of 
divergent and perplexingly diversified theologies. 

"One would have you attend to the confessional, 
do penance and observe and conform to the dictums 
emanating from the Roman Pontiff and the impe- 
rious maudates of priests, thereby securing absolution 
from the consequences of sin, and due preparation for 
the next world. Another admonishes you that your 
salvation depends on the nature and degree of faith 



132 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

in the atoning sacrifice. Another that you must be- 
come regenerated and washed of inherited and com- 
mitted sins by belief in and conformity to certain spe- 
cific and definitely prescribed tenets. And still another, 
that a good, moral life is the one thing needful, Jesus 
having paid the penalty of sin and triumphed over it 
for the whole of mankind. And so on, scarcely with- 
out limit, do these various and varied systems present 
themselves to perplex and annoy." 

July 31, 1882: 

" Instead of there being one, two or three states of 
the dead, the truth is there are an infinite number and 
variety of conditions in which the children of men 
exist ill the spiritual world with the qualification that 
they do not remain in them longer than they are ena- 
bled to progress out of them into other and higher 
ones. The plain truth is, as every intelligent and 
fairly progressed returning spirit will tell you, that 
faith and belief have nothing whatever to do in deter- 
mining your status in the spiritual world, nor will 
what a man believes, however erroneous it may verily 
be, if he is honest in it, have any potency in prepar- 
ing the spiritual conditions or assigning him his spir- 
itual sphere. Here we must be clearly understood, 
that we may avoid both misapprehension and misre- 
presentation. I do not affirm that false beliefs and 
erroneous conceptions of the hereafter do not have 
any effect on the spirit. They do have a very 
troublesome effect. They do not, however, in the 
slightest degree, determine the spiritual status, for 
this is regulated by other considerations — moral 
conduct, noble acts, spiritual unfoldment, etc. But 
when the proper sphero is reached after death, for 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 133 

which the new-comer is spiritually fitted, they halt 
him there, and for a time impede and retard his prog- 
ress, at least until he shall have outgrown false beliefs 
and conceptions while in the material body, A man 
may sincerely believe that the veritable orthodox devil 
is his constant companion, or that the air is swarming 
with malevolent creatures bent on his ruin, or that he 
is totally depraved by inheritance, and destined to 
utter and endless wretchedness in the other world, or. 
any thing else, however absurd and untrue, and yet 
that man's whole earth life may have been justly dis- 
tinguished for charitable deeds, love of the neighbor, 
and in all his habits, walks and ways all that the se- 
verest moralists could require, do you not at once see 
that in all justice and righteousness the man's life, 
acts and deeds must inevitably determine his sphere 
or spiritual condition, without the slightest interfer- 
ence by what foolish things he may have believed. 
And yet it is nevertheless not difficult to see further, 
that he must disabuse his mind of those errors of con- 
ception and belief before he can make any appreciable 
and valuable progress. And I tell you these unbeliefs 
and unfounded conceptions cling to the man with 
more obdurate persistency than the most of mankind 
could be induced to believe. Hence the prime im- 
portance of forming correct ideas of the future while 
still animating the material body." 

August 3, 1882 : 

" Acts of charity and deeds of benevolence are es- 
timated by the spiritual laws of our being in just cor- 
respondence to the motives inspiring and actuating 
them. By the motives prompting them, more than 
the acts and deeds themselves, do they become either 



134 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

valuable or valueless to our spiritual promotion and 
good. I have known men who devoted a lifetime of 
arduous labor in the acquisition of wealth, all the 
while wholly regardless of the interests and wants of 
others, and toward the end of the puny life, and in 
anticipation of the near approach of death, they be- 
queathed their accumulations to charitable and be- 
nevolent institutions, only to find themselves the mer- 
est spiritual paupers in the spiritual world. And 
why ? Because being governed a lifetime by grasp- 
ing and selfish motives, they only dispensed the accu- 
mulated results of the cultivated spirit of avarice and 
cupidity under the selfish and painfully delusive mo- 
tive of enhancing their interests in a world to which 
their aged infirmity admonished them they were 
hastening. Upon their entrance to the spiritual world 
the motive met them, and overshadowed them with 
its pitiless condemnation. 

" Had charity and benevolence characterized their 
lives all along for the sake of doing good and bless- 
ing others, it would have been quite otherwise with 
them in the eternal world of justice and truth. 

" Charities bestowed only possess eternal value 
when clone for sweet charity's sake, and with the un- 
selfish object of helping others. This constitutes love 
and genuine love of the neighbor, and is consequently 
divine and heavenly and of permanent and enduring 
value. 

" The Confucian doctrine, ' Do unto others as you 
would they should do unto you,' reiterated by the 
man Jesus, contains the great and salutary rule of life, 
which if practiced with the holiest and most disinter- 
ested motives will inevitably work out a most glori- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 135 

ous future reward for the spirit. The shepherd kings 
promulgated this rule in a finer sense and reduced it 
to the fine realm of mind. The Confucian rule re- 
lated to the actions of men, one to the other, hut the 
other declares, ' Think of others as you would have 
others think of you.' If your thoughts and actions 
are governed hy these rules you may conclude you are 
not far from the kingdom of heaven or angelic sphere. 
If you observe these because you love the right, you 
can not fail to love the Lord with all your heart and 
the neighbor as yourself, thus fulfilling the law of 
spiritual growth and development while in the temple 
of flesh, and insuring a condition of superlative hap- 
piness in the spiritual world. If in your present state 
of development you can not do this, you can, at least, 
make the honest and persevering effort to do it, and 
your reward shall be great." 

August 7, 1882 : 

" Abstain from evil-doing from the conscientious 
conviction that it is wrong to do evil and right to ab- 
stain. Do not allow yourself, in choosing between 
right and wrong, to be governed by a fear of future 
punishment, or hope of future reward, for this is cow- 
ardly and pusillanimous and of no practical value to 
your future happiness. Do right for the sake of the 
right and not from the selfish motive of deriving a 
personal benefit. You have in your world two very 
injurious and reprehensible doctrines taught by 
learned men, namely : materialism and forgiveness of 
sins. They are both degrading and far reaching in 
their baleful consequences. Christians treat material- 
ism with scornful derision, and yet it is just as true 
as that the misdeeds of life can be overcome and ren- 



136 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

clered harmless in their following consequences by 
death-bed repentance and the blood of atonement. 
One is as true as the other, and my presence here in 
spirit proves materialism to be groundless. Material- 
ism is the doctrine of one world only, a mere passing 
moment of life, and suggests very naturally to make 
the most out of it. I do not mean to be understood 
as asserting that there are not good honest people 
who believe in this doctrine, but that they are good 
and honest in spite of their belief and not as a result 
of it. The theological hearsay which proclaims the 
necessity of conversion, new birth, and regeneration 
(they are convertible terms) would be much more 
plausible if not supplemented by the more alarming 
and reprehensible doctrine of obtaining full pardon 
for repeated crimes and misdeeds just preceding or at 
the imminent moment of departing from the material 
body by so-called death. The first becomes bereft of 
its value, if indeed it has any, by the latter. It is tan- 
tamount to asking a man to liquidate an indebtedness 
now, when, under the law, he has ten or twenty years 
option. In a purely business view he realizes that the 
possession and use of his money for ten or twenty 
years is to him a matter of pecuniary interest and 
profit. So likewise is it with the man of the world 
with an organization tending to licentiousness and 
vice. He perceives no wisdom or practical use in be- 
coming regenerated in the days of his youth, when 
in old age the opportunity is afforded to repent and 
thereby avoid the consequences of the loose indul- 
gences and vices of a lifetime. Every villain who has 
run a lifetime unwhipt of justice and unpunished for 
his crimes, must be fascinated with this indulgent 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 137 

fallacy, whilcPall truly noble souls must silently, if not 
avowedly, abhor and detest it." 

August 10, 1882 : 

" While the Universalists are considered liberal 
and progressive, yet their doctrine is equally dan- 
gerous and untrue. Indeed, I have more respect 
for the others. They (the Universalists) claim to 
stand upon the "Word, and affirm that the blood and 
death of one man propitiated sin so far as the future 
life is concerned, and that therefore sinning entails no 
hurtful consequences but such as are met with along 
the journey of life from the cradle to the grave. In 
other words, that the consequences of sin are visited 
upon us during our earth life, or not at all. They at- 
tempt to justify and defend their doctrine by a mere 
play upon words found in isolated passages in the 
bible, especially the epistles in the "New Testament. 
The declarative assumptions of the bible, as trans- 
lated for your use and guidance, are utterly at war 
with their teachings, and it is folly to deny it. In this 
age when the human heart and mind are reaching out 
for something better it is useless and unproductive of 
good to go back to the root of words in originals to 
bolster up a doctrine founded in error. The effort 
will always prove unprofitable and must inevitably 
fail of its purpose. 

" I am aware that some advanced and more spirit- 
ually minded Universalists believe in progression m 
the future life, and in this regard their conclusions 
are better and far in advance of their premises. 

" I would say to those, however good and pure, who 
expect to awake to consciousness in an ideal world of 
transcendent beatitudes without shadows and crosses 



138 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

that they will realize a most perplexing disappoint- 
ment. They will find a world more natural than this, 
because more substantial and enduring, and what is 
more they will find they lack very much of being per- 
fect, more perfect indeed in un development than in 
that soul growth and unfoldment that would enable 
them to command the joys and delights vouchsafed by 
association with progressed spiritual beings in the 
higher walks and spheres of the spiritual world. To 
attain unto this state is the work of time and the re- 
ward of labor. 

" The true doctrine is, as all shall know in time 

. . . . ' 

that conscious and willful sinning, that is, where voli- 
tion in choosing between the right and the wrong was 
within our power, is treasured up in the memory of 
the spirit and confronts us in the spiritual world, and 
will remain until outgrown and overcome by arduous 
effort. Happiness can only be enjoyed by the finite 
in contrast with misery, and shadows and crosses will 
fall upon us, marring our joys, until in the ages of 
coming time we shall so expand and grow towards 
deific perfections and excellences as to think no evil, 
thus not only rendering our actions submissive to the 
highest wisdom, but our hearts and minds to the 
divine love, and in a happy union of love, wisdom, 
and the will, we shall become something more than 
finite in our approach to the infinite." 

August 11, 1882 : 

" Nevertheless let it be said to the humblest, strug- 
gle on, strive to battle for the right as you perceive it. 
If you see it not aright in good time it will be revealed 
unto you. Be of good cheer. You must needs suf- 
fer, for suffering in the right is spiritual growth — you 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 139 

are contiually encircled by infinite love. You shall 
rise step by step, unfolding this latent power and that, 
gradually and by discreet decrees casting aside this 
harrowing and distressing memory and that, all the 
while aided by those spirits who have passed through 
tribulations and sorrows into higher unfoldments and 
joys, until finally you shall rejoice in blissful clisen- 
thrallment from the imperfections of your past being. 
Then you will be enabled to see why you have thus 
suffered and rejoice that it has been so. ~No pang 
will afflict you worse than those you have inflicted 
upon others, or of greater magnitude than thousands 
and millions have endured. Be kind and forbearing 
to the erring, be merciful to all, even the humblest 
creature of the creation. Deal justly with all, live 
uprightly, fear nothing but evil and fly from it. Be 
brave for the right. Love vour neighbor, which being 
spiritually interpreted, means all mankind. Endeavor 
to learn and believe truth wherever found ; try, if pos- 
sible, to think no evil ; worship at no shrine but that 
of eternal truth, and no harm can come to you in the 
everlasting realms of immortal souls. iTo shadows 
shall darken the pathway of your progress other than 
those incident to your connection with matter and 
your undeveloped spirituality. And these shall be 
dissipated, facilitated, and accelerated, by the sweet 
memories of good deeds and good thoughts. 

"In the feeble communications I have given you, 
by the permission of the Lord, I have not been able 
to impart my ideas in the same language and style 
that characterized my writings when embodied. I 
know they will be subjected to this criticism, but the 
difficulties of projecting my ideas into form in words 



140 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

have been many and great. If they were explained 
they in turn would be criticised with equal virulence. 
When coming within the radius of mediumistic aura 
we encounter obstacles great and difficult to overcome 
at their state of mediumship. Happily in time these 
difficulties will be surmounted. The aura of the me- 
dium and sitter blending with my spirit magnetism, 
your continued thinking and also the medium, thereby 
disturbing the equability of the magnetic and electric 
emanations, and to a corresponding degree affecting 
the psychic forces of the communicating spirit, and 
other things you would not understand if told you, 
all conspire to enfeeble the spirit intellectually, and, 
to a certain extent, limit it to the mental sphere of 
those present, especially the medium, upon whom we 
are so largely dependent. If you understood the sub- 
ject as it really is, you would be surprised that we 
could even do so well. You, my dear Swedish friend, 
have aided us nobly; your motives being so pure and 
honest, we found in that itself a great auxiliary, and 
we sincerely thank you. I shall be with you often, 
and shall reward your many kindnesses by helping 
your sweet and interesting children in spirit life and 
others dear to you, to learn spiritual wisdom in their 
progress, and shall take a deep interest in you when 
you come to our life. 

" God bless this medium, for she is worthy. In earn- 
est supplication we invoke the blessings of the Lord, 
angels and spirits upon you both. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 141 



CHAPTER XII. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

On the 16th of June the following communication 
was received, and those following at the dates men- 
tioned, from the spirit of George Washington : 

a From my home and congenial associations in the 
spirit world I come to you to-day feeling and hoping 
that I may possibly be of some service to my country, 
which I have never ceased to love with the tender- 
ness of a mother's love for her children. Indeed, my 
country — the noble young republic — was kind to and 
considerate of me far above my merits. 

" In the memorable struggle for independence I w T as 
assigned to duty at the head of the colonial army, 
and by this circumstance occupied a position that at- 
tracted to me more general attention than to others 
who were in nowise less meritorious. After seven 
long years of patient suffering, heroic endurance, and 
almost superhuman exertion, our gallant and illy- 
provided army won an honorable peace, and I trust 
an imperishable renown. A nation of freemen was 
brought into being, and a system of government es- 
tablished far in advance of its predecessors. The old 
Roman republic, grand in many respects and a marvel 
of excellence for its time, was still in many regards 
vastly inferior to our own. Being at the head of the 
brave army whose herculean efforts, exerted under 
many disadvantageous circumstances, eventuated so 
gloriously, it was natural, although no more worthy 



142 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

than many others who rendered patriotic services, 
that I should be chosen the first executive of the young 
republic. This, to me, was a most nattering testimo- 
nial of the high appreciation of and affection for the 
gallant citizen soldiery who so valiantly acted in the 
stirring and sanguinary events of the memorable con- 
test. Regarding my elevation to the chief magistracy 
of the nation as a reflection of public sentiment as in- 
dicated more than as a personal compliment to my- 
self, it behooved me by discreet official conduct and 
patriotic action to show that the general appreciation 
and esteem for that noble soldiery was not misplaced 
nor unworthily bestowed. 

" If I have rendered worthy services to my country, 
either in the line of military duty or in the perform- 
ance of civil trust, or both, they must proclaim my 
right to speak from my higher conscious life to my 
countrymen on matters pertaining to their best and 
dearest interests. If the gallant army that fought to 
a successful issue the battles of freedom in the infancy 
of its struggles here have claims upon the attention 
and consideration of the present generation, and those 
of the future, they beg you to earnestly consider the 
words that may fall from my lips and pen. I have 
marshaled those mighty hosts of noble souls in spirit 
land, and with them have recounted our struggles and 
sacrifices for you and those to come after you, and 
they are in hearty accord with what I shall deem 
proper to say to the nation through the much abused 
and little understood channel of human mediumship. 
You will hear from me in the immediate future in 
obedience to the purpose indicated." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 143 

June 23,1882: 

" Your complex system of government needs and 
will receive reconstruction or remodeling. When we 
emerged from the revolutionary struggle, and came to 
give the fruits of our hard earned victory some defi- 
nite shape in the formation of a government for the 
new nation, we adopted the articles of confederation 
as the best we could then devise. It required but a 
short time to teach us that they were defective, and 
that prudence and wisdom dictated something differ- 
ent and better. The constitution was consequently 
fashioned and superseded the confederation, and there 
has never been any disagreement as to the superior 
wisdom of the constitutional form of government, at 
least, as an improvement on the original confedera- 
tion form. When this had been accomplished we 
were fully persuaded that the reorganization of the 
government under the constitution was the apex of 
statesmanship and the acme of the science of govern- 
mental construction, and were consequently happy 
and content. But alas, for poor human foresight. It 
very soon became evident that the new arrangement 
was imperfeet, if not absolutely defective, and twelve 
amendments to the new constitution were proposed 
by Congress and ratified by the states. After and as 
the result of the late unhappy conflict between dis- 
cordant states, or, rather, rebellion of certain states 
by secession against the rightful authority and sover- 
eignty of the federal government, several additional 
amendments became necessary and imperative, and 
they were accordingly incorporated and ingrafted 
upon the already amended constitution. And now 
others are earnestly talked of and advocated ; and does 



144 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

this not teach you the plain lesson that your system 
is still imperfect ? 

" The trouble is found to be that statesmanship is 
without foreknowledge, and is either blind to or ob- 
livious of the requirements of the future. In other 
words, that the ceaseless mutations of human affairs, 
the ever acting and onward march of the law of 
change and progression, fail to strike the consciousness 
of statesmen or to secure their recognition. Of one 
thing you may be assured, your plan of government 
will be revised and remodeled to its vast betterment. 
When the time comes this will be most vehemently 
resisted by those who on all questions affecting the 
interests of the race and the happiness of mankind 
persist in remaining with the bats and owls of past 
ages rather than to be baptized in the light of the 
present and the foregleams of the future. But they 
must get out of the way of the car of progress or be 
crushed beneath its merciless and continually revolv- 
ing wheels." 
June 30, 1882 : 

" In the formation of your present system of gov- 
ernment three co-ordinate branches were established 
— the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial — and they 
were designed to be checks, one upon the other. If 
in the zeal and frenzy of partisan strife, or under the 
baleful influence of venality and corruption, the legis- 
lative department should exceed its constitutional au- 
thority or enact legislation inimical to the public in- 
terests, the executive was invested with the veto priv- 
ilege whereby the evil might be arrested. If, how- 
ever, the President should be found to be in accord 
and sympathy with the legislative branch in its hurt- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 145 

ful legislation, and gave thereto the sanction of his 
approving signature ; or, in case the President exer- 
cised his veto power in the particular matter, and 
Congress should pass the measure over his objections 
by the requisite two-thirds of each branch, then and 
in either of these events there still remained the su- 
preme court with its supervisory power or power of 
final determination. 

" But it may be very properly asked, what if the 
supreme court should be influenced by the same or 
similar considerations as the other co-ordinate 
branches, what help, relief, or remedy., is left to the 
people and the nation ? It can only be answered — 
force, revolution, rebellion. Does not this plain state- 
ment present a dangerous contingency and indicate a 
palpable weakness? 

" It should be remembered that in our form of re- 
publican government all powers are derived from the 
people, and it should be furthermore very emphatic- 
ally understood that all powers belong to them. If 
this view is correct, then in the hypothetical case men- 
tioned for the purpose of illustration, the people them- 
selves should be the last court of resort, or the high 
court of appeals. 

" It was thought by the founders of your govern- 
ment that the judiciary would always be pure and 
safe, but unfortunately experience has taught us quite 
differently. It is humiliating to an American citizen, 
whether he be in or out of the body, to be compelled 
to make this confession. But truth not only justifies 
but demands it, and it is best that it be frankly made 
and acknowledged." 



146 Sl'IRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



August 14, 1882 : 



" We are not permitted, for prudential reasons, to 
tell you how the new system is to be fashioned. To do 
so would not facilitate its accomplishment, but might 
possibly operate detrimentally by inducing premature 
consideration and discussion. Suffice it to say that 
the subject has been deliberately considered and the 
plan carefully matured by wise statesmanship in the 
realm of causation, and will be given to your world at 
the proper time and in the proper way. 

" I desire to briefly discuss two propositions : 

"1st. What are the duties of the citizen to the gov- 
ernment, or what the government has the right to 
exact of and from the citizen ? 

" 2d. What are the duties of the government to the 
people, or what the people have the right to exact of 
and from their government? 

" First. The citizen owes the government affection 
and homage. This springs from patriotism and self- 
interest. 

" Second. To render a cheerful obedience to and 
acquiescence in all lawfully constituted authority, re- 
serving always and of primary importance the natural 
and inalienable right when all civil remedies prove 
unavailing, of revolution against and resistance to, 
tyranny, usurpation, and oppression. 

" Third. Prompt compliance with all the lawful 
edicts and mandates of government. If they are 
deemed unlawful, unjust, and oppressive, first appeal- 
ing to judicial supervision and all lawful means for 
relief and protection — revolution the dernier ressort. 

" Fourth. Loyally protecting, defending, and sus- 
taining the government when assailed from within or 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 147 

without, and when waging a just war upon a foreign 
foe, or in the suppression of an unjust and indefensi- 
ble internal war, insurrection, or rebellion. 

" Fifth. Aiding the government both in peace and 
war by being honest to and with it in official station, 
and by helping to uphold and foster its credit and 
honor. 

" These comprise mainly the duties of the citizen to 
his government. He owes other duties to society and 
the local community in which he resides, but they are 
not considered pertinent or germane to our proposi- 
tion. 

"I speak of sustaining the government in war. 
War is a terrible thing to contemplate, and we would 
gladly crush it out in its every vestige, but you seem 
as yet not to have outgrown and developed above and 
beyond it, and therefore we are compelled to notice 
the subject, however painful and sorrowful it may be. 
The time is not so very far distant in the future when 
nations and men will progress beyond this horrible 
relic of barbarism, when the fierce god of war will 
give place to the sweet and gentle spirit of peace and 
brotherly love ; when all differences will be amicably 
adjusted without a resort to the arbitrament of the 
sword and the instruments of devastation, bloodshed, 
and death." 

August 17, 1882: 

" In a certain sense he people are the children of 
the government, and in a still more important sense 
the government is the offspring of the people. If you 
ask me what, under the law of your present state of 
development, are the duties of the child to the par- 
ent, I answer obedience, maintenance, and protec- 



148 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

tion. If you ask me the duties of the parent to the 
child, I answer maintenance, education, and protec- 
tion. The family government was the first govern- 
ment in the infancy of the race from which all other 
governments naturally and progressively sprang, and 
their relations and reciprocating duties are much the 
sam e. 

" I now reach the second proposition : What are 
the duties of the government to the people, or what 
have the people the right to demand of their govern- 
ment ? It is the bounden duty of the government, 
under the constitution, to afford ample and plenary 
protection to the citizen in the exercise and enjoyment 
of civil and religious liberty. This protection is due 
to the humblest as well as the most exalted. The 
powers of your government are adequate to this end, 
if properly and effectively wielded, and if exercised 
without fear or favoritism. 

" Again, it is the duty of government to see that 
public affairs are so managed that its burdens may 
fall lightly upon the people and mostly upon those 
ablest to bear them. A judicious system of obtain- 
ing revenue to meet the exigencies of government 
and the liquidation of the national public debt by 
taxing incomes on accumulated wealth and its in- 
vestment in various speculative methods, would be 
most salutary to the attainment of the object. 

" In order that the wise purposes of good govern- 
ment be carried out, and that honesty, frugality, and 
the most rigid economy should characterize every de- 
partment of the public service, it is essentially and in- 
dispensably important that honesty and capacity alone 
should be regarded as commanding qualities for pub- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 149 

lie official positions. Dishonesty and corruption and 
bribery in public stations ought to be severely pun- 
ished, else there remains no safety and security to con- 
fiding constituencies. When your government offices 
reek with corruption and no alarm is manifested and 
no corrective measures adopted, you are not far from 
the yawning brink of the precipice over which your 
liberties and free institutions are sure to be precipi- 
tated. It is the duty of the government, in the in- 
terest of a confiding trusting people to hunt down the 
official vampires and parasites who thus insidiously 
prey upon the vitals of government, and infiict upon 
them such penalties as are commensurate with their 
enormous crimes. To allow them to go on with im- 
punity and exempt from punishment is to invite and 
encourage corruption, and to suggest the safety of its 
increase." 

August 18, 1882 : 

"It is the duty of government to foster, uphold, 
and defend labor in its unequal struggle against the 
greed of capital to the end that capital may not ut- 
terly crush it beneath its scornful and merciless heel. 
I tell you in all seriousness that on this subject you 
are approaching the verge of a volcano whose wrath- 
ful pent-up fires can not be much longer controlled, 
nor is it desirable that they should be unless a speedy 
change in the treatment of labor by capital, involv- 
ing justice and right, is brought about. It is a delu- 
sion and in opposition to all human experience to ex- 
pect capital, uncompelled by law, to become quick- 
ened in conscience and pervaded by a sense of equity 
and right. The government must stretch forth its 
strong arm and compel the exercise by authoritative 



150 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

and coercive power of a spirit of justice and fair deal- 
ing that belongs to a common humanity. Revivify 
and re-adopt that virtuous and beneficent doctrine of 
the earlier patriotic statesmanship of the republic, 
namely : ' The greatest good to the greatest number.' 
The men and women who toil and sweat in poverty 
constitute the greatest number, and he must indeed be 
blind to truth and deaf to justice who fails to discover 
or concede that the toiling millions have wrongs done 
them by the greedy rapacity of capital, and which 
appeal with vehement persistency for redress — aye, 
we fear in a little while, for retaliative and retributive 
vengeance. They have the right to claim protection 
from the steady and stealthy encroachments of capital 
whereby the rich grow richer and the poor poorer. 
Capital and labor are mutually interested in each 
others' welfare and prosperity, and are alike equally 
entitled to protection when dealing justly with each 
other, but under the present order of things labor is 
at the mercy of capital, and receives not justice at its 
hands. And this great government fought into ex- 
istence by the common people, defended in every suc- 
ceeding struggle by the common people, and which 
claims to be a government of the people and by the 
people and for the people, stands idly by with folded 
arms and with an apparent serene complacency per- 
mits the great masses of the people to become hope- 
lessly impoverished, while the exclusive and favored 
few become enormously enriched. Verily has the 
government by its inaction and failure to interpose, 
become truly and in the sight of heaven a particeps 
criminis in producing this wretched and deplorable 
condition of affairs." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS., 151 

August 21, 1882 : 

" You have a tariff system, which for unrighteous- 
ness in the cruelty of its exactions, is without a par- 
allel in modern times. It is unjust and oppressive; 
wholly indefensible, and with scarcely a palliating 
feature. My circumscribed power in communicating 
will not allow me to argue the question in extenso, or 
as I would like to. Your tariff is not only unjustly 
discriminative, but painfully oppressive in its opera- 
tions, especially so far as the interests of the con- 
sumers are concerned. Why do you not honestly ex- 
amine the subject in its bearings in the laudable en- 
deavor to ascertain to whose benefit it inures. The 
government to some extent is benefited in the matter 
of revenue, but the capitalists are more largely the 
beneficiaries, and it is for them and their interests that 
you legislate. Have you not yet discovered, if not 
by close and analytical reasoning, at least by an ob- 
servance of its practical operations, that the poor arti- 
sans, skilled mechanics, and other labors immediately 
connected with your manufactures, are not favored 
by high rates of tariff, and that protection to home 
manufacturing by imposts on imported commodities 
does not enhance the interests or confer blessings upon 
the consumers of your manufactured articles. Have 
you not yet realized the fact that exorbitant and re- 
strictive protection fosters only the interests of in- 
vested capital, with no real advantage to the toiling 
operatives and to the oppressive detriment of con- 
sumers? If the operatives in your manufacturing 
establishments were benefited by high tariffs it would 
be manifested and plainly discernible in prosperous 
accumulations and in their happy contentment. The 



152 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

opposite of all this is true, and it does not require a 
philosopher to discover it. Why trades unions, re- 
peated and frequent strikes, and an unmistakably un- 
happy condition of unrest, if the benefits accruing 
from the system beneficially inured to the workmen ? 
The masses of your toiling people are inclined to suf- 
fer and bear injuries and injustice with a patience and 
forbearance not characteristic of any other people 
under the broad canopy of heaven, and when they 
protest by strike or otherwise you may safely assume 
that they are in the right, and have just grievances. 
The people not directly connected with the manufac- 
turing interest, but who are the purchasers of its prod- 
ucts, have exhibited a still more remarkable degree of 
patient forbearance, for they are much more numer- 
ous and less directly dependent. They have been 
sorrowfully blinded to their true interests by uncon- 
scionable politicians and political tricksters, and most 
clearly have they paid for their confidence and ignor- 
ance. We see signs of the awakening of the hitherto 
slumbering sensibilities of the people, and feel assured 
that in the not remote future will be aroused a senti- 
ment among the masses that will compel a change of 
front on this subject in the meting out of even-handed 
and impartial justice."' 

August 24, 1882 : 

" Another subject of engrossing importance to your 
weal is the threatening and dangerous attitude of 
monopoly and corporate power. Your railroad cor- 
porations are assuming gigantic proportions, and 
bode no good to you if left uncontrolled and unregu- 
lated by law. Your liberties are not only menaced 
for many causes, but by this corporate power all the 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 153 

avenues and departments of your government are be- 
ing influenced detrimentally to the general public in- 
terest, if not absolutely sullied by the corroding ele- 
ments of corruption. These corporations, by the 
many influences they are enabled to exert, if left un- 
restrained by legislation, will control your govern- 
ment and its vast machinery as effectually and com- 
pletely as the planets perform their circuits in obedi- 
ence to the inflexible and unerring laws of the uni- 
verse. 

" It is nonsense to talk about the absence of con- 
stitutional power over the subject. Your national 
legislature has ample warrant, under the constitu- 
tional provision conferring authority upon Congress 
to regulate commerce among the states, and Congress 
should exercise that authority promptly and fear- 
lessly. Railroads are common carriers, and are, when 
considered in connection with this power conferred 
upon Congress, public, and not private, highways. 
The Supreme Court of the United States has frequently 
affirmed this power as residing in the legislative de- 
partment of the government. Unless regulated and 
restrained, these corporations may impose such ex- 
orbitant rates of transportation as to destroy ordinary 
profits on manufactured and other commodities, and 
necessitate an insufferable and unbearable increase to 
meet the exigency of increased rates of transporta- 
tion, and, of course, to the detriment and oppression 
of consumers. The government must take the matter 
in hand for the protection of the people. Competi- 
tion will prove unavailing without restrictive legisla- 
tion ; for the railroads would engage in pooling, and 
thereby render nugatory the natural advantages of 



154 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

competition. This monopoly constitutes the most 
threatening element in the country, and will be felt 
too soon, if not prevented hy judicious exercise of 
governmental authority. The use of steam, as applied 
to railroads, steamboats, and steamships, was un- 
known to the founders of your government and the 
framers of your constitution, or more definite provis- 
ions would have been made in relation to the subject 
of regulating commerce. Why can not your states- 
men be as patriotic and as true to the public ? 

" Although mainly chartered by the states, they are 
not authorized by implication or otherwise to pursue 
the selfish course of only subserving the interests of 
capital, but for the convenience and benefit of the 
great body of the people in commerce and travel as 
well. They have, by exercising an undue influence, 
corrupted courts and legislatures, and will, ere long, 
as they have already to some extent, invade the sacred 
precincts of your elections, corrupting the sanctity of 
the ballot-box, and demoralizing the independence of 
electors. Then your government will become a farce, 
and your free institutions subject to the whims and 
caprices of unholy and unconscionable monopoly 
power." 

August 25, 1882: 

u The great agricultural interests upon which you 
mostly depend for all of your material prosperity re- 
ceive no protection from your tariff legislation, but 
are compelled to pay tribute to manufacturing by 
paying tariffs on manufactured agricultural imple- 
ments used on the farm by the increased prices on the 
same. Besides, this great interest (agricultural) is 
at the mercy of railroad corporations in high rates of 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 155 

transporting the products of the farm to market, and 
m the end the burden falls on the consumers of such 
products. 

" The recent tariff commission created by Congress, 
and its members appointed by the President, is a mis- 
erable subterfuge and sham, as you will ultimately 
ascertain. The dodging of the responsibility by Con- 
gress, of an immediate revision of the tariff and the 
correction of its abuses and vices, ought to be vigor- 
ously condemned. There exists no valid reason why 
the old war tariff rates should be continued in this 
era of profound peace and general prosperity of trade 
and business. Under the constitution, tariff taxation 
can only be imposed on imported articles for the pur- 
poses of revenue to the government, and this, how- 
ever arranged, is amply sufficient to afford incidental 
protection to home manufactories. The time is com- 
ing when free trade and open, untrammelled commerce 
with all nations will be the policy of all wise govern- 
ments, and the sooner it is brought about the better. 

" The currency policy will also be changed, and a 
great wrong therein righted. The national banking 
system projected into being early in the late war, and 
which had its necessities for an apology, will be abro- 
gated and done away with, and a currency furnished 
directly by the government to the people, without the 
intervention and agency of private banking corpora- 
tions. This will be cheaper, safer, and more durable, 
predicated, as it will be, upon the good faith of the 
American people and their government, and secured 
by their prosperity. 

" The time will come when the flag of the Ameri- 
can republic will float over Canada, all the British 



156 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

Possessions on this continent, the island of Cuba, the 
natural key to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as over 
the cultivated valleys, arid plateaus, and towering 
mountains of the land of the Montezumas, beyond 
the Rio Grande. Then will your system of govern- 
ment be remodeled and reconstructed upon a plan in- 
finitely superior to your present one, and the United 
States will not only become the greatest nation the 
earth has ever known, but the nucleus around which, 
in time, all other nations will cluster and revolve, 
shouting the anthem of human equality and freedom 
and universal liberty. G. Washington." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 157 



CHAPTER XIII. 

COMMUNICATION FROM MY SON EMIL ABOUT EX-PRESIDENT 
GARFIELD— -GREETINGS FROM MADAM EHRENBORG — LET- 
TER FROM REY. GODDARD, AND SWEDENBORG'S ANSWER. 

On the 26th of September, 1881, at the hour of 9 
o'clock, forenoon, it being the same memorable day 
on which the body of the late lamented Garfield was 
buried, I went to Mrs. Green, 309 Longworth street, 
for an independent slate-writing seance. I had pre- 
viously prepared the following paper, which I laid on 
the table, writing downwards, and which Mrs. Green 
had no means of reading, viz: 

" Will our dear exalted spirit friends be so kind as 
to give us some information of James A. Garfield, our 
late beloved President." 

On the slate soon came the following, signed Emil, 
the name of my spirit son. 

" Good morning, dear papa. Many spirits are here 
to greet you. Our beloved and martyr President's 
work has j ust begun. He awoke immediately to con- 
sciousness and to the reality of a future life, of which 
he had slight knowledge. He was met with Wash- 
ington, the father of his country, and the martyr Lin- 
coln, with a crown prepared for him, and with many 
other loving kindred spirits, who had gone before to 
prepare for his reception, and it was the grandest one 
he ever had. He has been introduced to our spiritual 
congress, where he will finish his work, and where he 



158 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

will be more useful to bis country. You will soon see 
a communication from tbe President in tbe papers." 

Then immediately came : 

" Dear papa, weep not for tbose who pass from this 
to higher spheres. Think of them free from sorrow 
and pain, and wipe away your tears. Emil." 

Oct. 10. Through Mrs. Green. " My highly es- 
teemed friend, good morning. Baron Swedenborg is 
prevented from meeting you to-day by reason of a 
called special session of the scientific institute or har- 
monial order of savants, of which he is a prominent 
member. Matters of transcendent import and press- 
ing moment now engross the attention of that hon- 
orable body of advanced spiritual minds. He re- 
quested me to thus announce his enforced absence 
to-day, and to say that it will afford him pleasure to 
be with you at your next sitting. 1 avail myself of 
this opportunity, by the kind permission of the me- 
diums' guides, to give my blessings, and to again urge 
you to go on with your investigations, and to push 
forward the noble work set before you by the spirit 
world. The elements for your spiritual unfoldment 
are constantly at work, and will continue to work out 
for you a rich reward far exceeding your most confi- 
dent anticipations. Only fully-co-operate with these 
elements and continue to act conjointly with your 
spirit friends and all will be we>l. 

" Bright spirits of light around you stand, 
Whom you have attracted from the summerland; 
They come to bless you with their spirit light, 
And make your life all beauteous and bright. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 159 

" Press forward, then, with fearless tread, 
And learn from those the world call dead; 
The veil is rent, their presence ever near, 
Your soul to bless and heart to cheer. 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

The communications from Swedenborg of the 8th 
of September, 1881, through Mrs. Jennie McKee (the 
first one from him), and those through Mrs. Green of 
the 26th of September and 3d of October, 1881, I had 
printed in a small pamphlet, and sent them to divers 
parties, and one to the Rev. John Goddard, a minis- 
ter of the New Church in Cincinnati, with the hope 
that he would afford the members of his congregation 
the opportunity to read them. In answer, I received 
the following reply from Mr. Goddard, viz : 

"Price's Hill, August 19, 1881. 

" Dear Mr. Helleberrj : Your communication with 
your pamphlet came to me to-day. I hardly know 
what to say in reply, for I fear that nothing I can 
say will be of any use. I have no doubt in the world 
that there is such a thing as communication with 
spirits, nor has any intelligent and well informed New 
Churchman. Nor have I any doubt whatever that 
they are a very low order of spirits, and scarcely ever 
those whom they personate. It is clear that Sweden- 
borg never sent any such communications as these. 
To believe otherwise would be to believe that intelli- 
gent men in the other world lose their wits instead 
of increasing in wisdom. Doubtless this is permitted 
as a forcible and compelling offset to the tremendous 
and increasing materialism of the day. I can not con- 
ceive of any use in it to those who desire to be led by 



160 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

the Lord in freedom and reason. JSTot only Sweden- 
borg declares the thing disorderly, bnt all experience 
coincides with his repeated warnings and emphasises, 
the need of our keeping close to the Lord in his 
divine word. I say to you frankly that I do not feel 
warranted in putting this pamphlet before the society, 
for knowing as I do the seductive and tremendously 
persuasive power of this influence and realizing the 
evil in it, I should be doing violence to my sense of 
duty in bringing the matter to their notice. To those 
capable of better things it is a delusion and a snare. 
With kind personal feelings to you and all your fam- 
ily, and deploring your connection with this dreadful 
sphere, I remain sincerely yours in truth, 

" John Goddard." 

On November the 7th I repaired to Mrs. Green's, 
taking with me Mr. Goddard's letter, which I did not 
allow Mrs. Green to see, nor did I speak to her any 
thing in regard to its contents. I had also prepared 
a communication to Mr. Swedenborg, which I took 
along with me, in words as follows : 

" To my exalted spirit friend, Emanuel Sweden- 
borg : For conferring on me the honor of receiving 
your communications for the people who you seek to 
bless with the truth, I appreciate in the highest de- 
gree, and my only hope and wish is that I may be 
able to do this work in a proper and efficient way. 
The letter before you from the Rev. John Goddard, 
minister of the Church of the New Jerusalem here, 
in answer to my pamphlet containing your three first 
letters to me, is a sample of what may be expected 
from that class. I have had the opinion that the 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 161 

preachers of every denomination will be the very last 
to accept this most beautiful truth, and, therefore, I 
have concluded to send the pamphlet only to free, ad- 
vanced minds, and to the individual members of the 
different churches of the E"ew Jerusalem, if it re- 
ceives your approval. With love and sincere affec- 
tion, 1 am your willing and obedient servant, 

"C. G. Helleberg." 

Placing Goddard's letter with mine on the stand, 
the following communication came on the slate : 

u In the adorable name of the Lord I salute you 
good morning. The course you have pursued in re- 
gard to my communications to you meets my hearty 
approval. In the future be governed by the direc- 
tions of your immediate guides, in whom I have the 
utmost confidence, for they are constantly with you, 
and are more intimately related to your sphere, and 
know best how and what to direct. I am advised of 
the purport of the letter to you from our good brother, 
Mr. Goddard, and have lately visited him for the 
purpose of observing his surroundings and perceiving 
his mental operations. As the result, I believe him 
honest and nearer your platform than he is willing to 
make known. He certainly concedes enough in his 
letter to fortify your faith, and to satisfy those under 
his influence that modern spiritualism, so called, 
sprang from the great store house of the father's love, 
and is in his keeping. May the good brother become 
so illuminated as to reach the grander conclusion fully 
in consonance with the truth, that his religion ema- 
nated not from the Lord direct, but from the writer 
hereof under the spiriritual instruction suited to that 



162 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

age, and that in lifting the veil between the two 
worlds of embodied and disembodied man, and per- 
mitting, yea compelling^ the intercommunion be- 
tween their denizens, the heavenly father has not 
made an assortment of evil only for you, for this 
would be malevolence under whatever pretext, but 
that all may, if they desire, hold intercourse with the 
terrestrial sphere. 1 have neither lost my wits nor 
retrograded in wisdom, but since I left the body I have 
lost much of my arrogance and pride, and am now 
more interested in imparting plain, simple truth, than 
in the construction of embellished sentences and high 
sounding and beautifully rounded periods. The hu- 
mility taught by Jesus and others anterior to his day 
and since embodies a sublime law of the spiritual 
spheres, underlying all true progression, to which I 
cheerfully bow in reverential adoration. If my dear 
brother will only humble himself as a little child, for- 
getting for awhile his books, and casting aside the 
imperious demands of his system of belle-lettres, he 
will then from that truly spiritually elevated altitude 
begin to perceive and to drink in the beauties of 
spiritual truth and the glories of the Lord. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 163 



CHAPTER XIV. 

COMMUNICATIONS FROM PRESIDENT GARFIELD, MADAM 
EHRENBORG, GOVERNOR J. D. WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, JUDGE EDMONDS. 

Nov. 21. Among other things during this sitting 
with Mrs. Green I received the following: 

"Good morning friends of truth. On passing out 
of the physical form and awakening to the conscious- 
ness of the perpetuity of my being, and a realization 
of my continued individuality, I was overwhelmed 
with the triumph of the spirit over the empire of 
crude matter, and as I gazed upon the worn, shat- 
tered and emaciated body, and in the presence of 
many kindred and other loving spirit friends, the first 
thought that occupied my mind was, is it possible 
that I have lived so long in the presence of this great 
truth and have known so little about it? Then fol- 
lowed a feeling of self-chiding, yea remorse, that I 
had neglected so many opportunities to learn that 
wisdom so much needed by the newly arisen spirit, 
and how much I had really missed by not acquiring 
knowledge of the spirit world, the future of the spirit, 
and the laws of spiritual government. Resulting 
from reflections like these came the impelling desire 
to return through whatever avenue I might find to 
speak to a fond mother, devoted wife, loving chil- 
dren, and sympathizing friends, to announce, if no 
more, that I not only slill lived, but was fully con- 
scious of and keenly alive to their grief and sorrow. 
But I would do more. Having passed safely and 



164 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

gloriously the ordeal of so-called death, and crossed 
the dreaded rubicon, I am now employing my best 
energies in learning the initial and rudimentary laws 
appertaining to spirit life and spirit growth, which I 
ought to have learned on earth, in the fervent hope 
and desire that I may he of service to my country 
and countrymen. If I have a friend who would hear 
and heed me, I would say to him as my best counsel, 
see to it that you learn more of the spiritual side of 
life while here in the bod} 7 , that when you pass to the 
higher life your spirit may be accelerated in its on- 
ward march along the highways of progress in the 
heavenly spheres. J. A. Garfield." 

At the seance the 7th of November, 1881, I 
placed a sealed letter, with no address on the en- 
velope, on the stand, and no one in the body except 
myself knew the contents, as I had written it early in 
the morning at my home, on Mt. Auburn. I deem it 
best to give my letter and the answer to it in full, as 
it demonstrates beyond all possible controversy the 
ability of spirits to read and understand written mat- 
ter effectually concealed from mortal view by being 
securely sealed up. 

" To my dear exalted spirit friend, Madam Frecl- 
rika Ehrenborg: You always was on earth a highly 
valued friend of mine. Since your entrance into 
the spirit world I have been lead to appreciate 
more fully your good qualities of head and heart ; 
and your kind spiritual ministrations to me I 
fear I can never repay. They have made me 
very happy indeed. You brought the highly 
exalted Swcdenborg, and your angel husband to 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATION'S. 105 

make God's truths clearer to us, aud we know we 
can not return this loving kindness in any other way 
than in by trying to live up to them in our daily lives, 
and in making them known to others. During my 
whole life I have had so very few real friends outside 
of my family, but I now know that my good spirit 
friends have more than restored the loss of earthly 
friends, who I may have lamented. For a long time 
I have been thinking to send you a special offering 
of my sincere, heartfelt thanks, which I now do. 
Your sincere and humble earth friend, 

" C. J. Helleberg." 

The answer soon came in the following words on 
the insides of the double slate : 

" To my highly respected earth friend, C. J. Helle- 
berg: I know since my entrance upon a higher life 
more than before that you value my friendship to a 
very high degree, which I have tried with my spirit 
to reciprocate. You need not feel yourself under 
obligations to me or mine, for I take great pleasure in 
administering to your wants, and I am exceedingly 
happy to be able to do so, and that you appreciate 
we know. "We are aware that our communications 
to you have made you and yours happy, and it re- 
joices us to know that we have been the instruments 
in doing good, and as you say, ' You can not return 
our loving kindness in any other way than by trying 
with all your might to live up to them in your daily 
lives, and in making them known to others.' That 
is just what your spirit friends wish you to do. You 
need not grieve for earthly friendship ; those ties 
have soon to be broken, but have you thought on 



166 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

spirit life and friends ? My noble husband and Mr. 
Swedenborg are here with us. Accept my heartfelt 
thanks for your good wishes toward me, and for your 
kind allusion to my noble companion. Love to your 
dear companion, and believe me ever your friend and 
guide. This is in answer to your sealed letters. 

" Fredrika Ehrenborg." 

The 23d of January, 1882, came the following from 
the former Governor of Indiana: "Good morning 
my dear friend in the cause of truth. I have been 
present at many of your sittings, and this morning I 
feel the power strong enough to write and give ex- 
pressions to a few humble thoughts in regard to what 
I have done since my entrance to the spirit world. 
My battles here were to put down aristocracy and the 
expenses of our government. I fought hard for that. 
I did not believe in drinking ice tea at the expense of 
the government. I was satisfied with a good old 
fashion tea like my mother made, and a suit of blue 
jeans. I am still at work in our spiritual congress to 
that end. If there is not something done speedily 
our government of our forefathers is gone, and in- 
stead a stronger one, or monarchy. Capitalists gnaw- 
ing at its vitals, and it must inevitably succumb. 
Spirit world is constantly at work to change the in- 
fluence. We are coming to every channel we can to 
speak, and our prayers are that we may be heard and 
heeded. With my blessing on you both, I bid you 
good day. J. D. Williams." 

"A. Lincoln, J. A. Garfield, 0. P. Morton, A. P. 
Willard, Emanuel Swedenborg, Fredrika Ehrenborg, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 167 

Madam Amalia de Frese, Polheim, Wilberforce and 
Otto Jacob Natt-och-Dag are present. Emil." 

December 12tli came the following: 

"Kind friends : I am with yon this morning to en- 
courage yon by the utterance of a few thoughts. The 
authority of the priesthood over the consciences and 
judgments of men is fast losing its hold, and creeds 
are in the course of ultimate extinction. The over- 
throw of the institution of slavery in the United States 
was precipitated by war, and I shudder to contem- 
plate even the possibility that the final conflict be- 
tween the prevalent creeds predicated on false theol- 
ogy, and succored by superstition on the one hand, 
and an enlightened nationalism on the other, may 
unhappily eventuate in bloody issues. Creeds are 
doomed to perish. God grant they may pass away 
without the costly sacrifice of blood. The pages of 
both sacred and profane history record crimes of the 
darkest and deepest magnitude enacted in the holy 
name of religion. In her fair name the soil of the 
earth has been crimsoned with the precious blood of 
martyrs, and the ghastly horrors of the inquisition 
have been feebly and imperfectly told. The real 
truth of those horrid deeds has been faithfully chron- 
icled in the archives of the spirit work]. Without 
malice, and in all charity, I speak of them to-day, 
but the truth must be boldly stated. The history of 
the Christian system of religion is, in part, a history 
of foul assassination, bloodshed and rapine, and all 
under the impious pretext of advancing the kingdom 
of heaven and magnifying the glory of the Lord. Not 
only have the brave souls who dared to lift voice or 



168 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

hand against the hideous monster of religions fanati- 
cism and tyranny been sacrificed as heretics, hut noble 
and queenly women — yea, innocent and unoffending 
children — have fallen victims to its merciless cruelty 
and gluttonous rapacity for greed and power. Re- 
ligion and tyranny have marched hand in hand to- 
gether along the highways of the past, and with the 
stake, the javelin, the executioner's ax, and every con- 
ceivable instrument of torture, have left behind them 
ruin, desolation and death as fitting and enduring 
monuments of their utter unrighteousness. Does 
this terrible history, so replete with evil, offer us evi- 
dences of Godlike excellence ? Can such a religious 
system, founded in falsehood, fostered by superstition, 
nourished by the blood of innocence, and pre-emi- 
nently distinguished by so frightful a history, much 
longer command the tolerant and kindly considera- 
tion of the advanced intelligence of the world, or con- 
tinue to inspire the conviction that it emanated from 
God, and has been sustained all these centuries by the 
fostering care of his goodness and love ? In view of 
all this, is it surprising to any one that He who. 
taketh cognizance of the minutest details of human 
conduct has commissioned his angels and the spirits 
who have escaped the environments and passed" be- 
yond the limitations of the fiesh to return to those in 
mortal on the redemptive mission of demonstrating 
a continued life beyond the grave, and revolution- 
izing the religious thought, moral tendencies and 
spiritual conceptions of mankind. I repeat, creeds are 
doomed to perish, and this angel ministry, fraught 
with freedom, truth' and righteouness, will erect her 
gorgeous temples over their buried ruins. Thanks 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 169 

be to God that I obeyed the majestic voices wafted 
from the spirit world, inducing, as they did, the lib- 
eration in our land of four millions of the enslaved 
children of chattel bondage. Enjoying the com- 
munion with spirits, and learning of them and their 
bright homes, the heritage of the father's love, I was, 
while yet inhabiting the tabernacle of clay, made glad 
and filled with superhuman joy, and in consequence 
was the recipient of strength and happiness in this 
glorious land of the spirit. Go ye, therefore, and 
do likewise. Good day. A. Lincoln." 



170 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

NEW YEARS' GREETINGS FROM MANY OF MY DEAR SPIRIT 
FRIENDS AND NEAR RELATIVES. 

The 29th of December, 1881, I received with many 
others the following communication : 

" Good morning, my dear friends, for such I will 
call you, although I have never had the pleasure of 
seeing you in the body, but as magnetic attraction 
seems to be the topic, I will write a feAV lines to you. 
Some years ago I corresponded w T ith this medium's 
husband, and I had the pleasure of calling her my 
pupil, because her medinmship was so much like that 
of mine and my daughter Laura. I took so much in- 
terest in her and her future success, and predicted 
that she would be a wonderful medium in time, and 
now I come as her teacher to congratulate her on her 
success and to give her words of cheer, and to tell 
her that she has only ascended half way up the lad- 
der of fame as a spirit medium ; and, also, that I have 
come to-day by magnetic attraction, and will be here 
often to aid her in her development. With my pray- 
ers for you both and for your success, I bid you good 
morning. Judge Edmonds." 

The;2d of January, 1882, in the forenoon, came on 
the slate the following : 

" Good morning, dear papa. "We are all here with 
our happy New Year's greetings — Emil, Charles, Gus- 
taf, Mary, Julia, Grandpa and Grandma Helleberg, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 171 

Grandpa Natt-och-Dag, Swedenborg, Madam Ehren- 
borg, Madam de Frese, and a host of others. Dear 
Emil forgot me ; I am last, but I hope not the least, 
in sending you a happy New Year's greeting. He 
says I am able to do that myself, and so I am, and 
happy to do so. Nothing affords me more real pleas- 
ure than to communicate to you. Wishing you many 
beautiful spirit communications this coming year, I 
bid you good day. Jennie." 

After this came the following ' from a highly es- 
teemed noble lady, who recently passed to the higher 
life, leaving an only daughter remaining in the form. 
Madam de Frese was distinguished in her native land 
— Sweden — for her literary tastes and labors and the 
purity of her character. It was a great surprise by 
reason of her having passed on so recently : 

" Good morning, my dear friend. With the assist- 
ance of Mr. Swedenborg and our kind friend Madam 
Ehrenborg, and with the aid of this medium's very 
highly gifted and intelligent band, I am able to write 
a few more lines to those I love who are yet in the 
body." (At this moment I said to the medium, " It 
is my impression that this communication is from my 
friend, Amelia de Frese, and it may be a help to con- 
vince the New Church people in Sweden, and her 
daughter, of the spiritual truth and power.") 

And then came : 

" Yes, that is my object, to send them a New Year's 
greeting from my beautiful spirit home, and to tell 
my dear daughter that I am not far from her, but able 
to advise her and control affairs mundane, and that 
by impression. She will be directed in the right way, 



172 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

and although she does not imagine that I am with her, 
still it is a reality. TelL her to have no fear, she will 
be directed to do my will, and now that the dark pall 
is before her, and that to penetrate through it seems 
an impossibility, but 'ere long she will get glimpses of 
the summer land and of the loved ones gone before. 
Though the clouds may lower and thicken fast and 
the mutterings of the storm king is heard, fear not, 
mother is near to ward off danger. She will know 
my meaning. She is in mental trouble, the weight is 
almost overpowering. This will help to remove it 
somewhat, and what she longs for. She thinks, ' Oh, 
if mother could tell me what to do.' As a parting 
word, tell her that the sunshine of Spiritualism will 
scatter the clouds and mists that now surround her, 
and that she will be made doubly happy by its intro- 
duction into her troubled heart, and every pulsation 
of that member of the body will beat with joy. With 
the blessings of Swedenborg and Madam Ehrenborg, 
and with my heart full of love for her and highest re- 
gards for yourself and companion, and thanks for this 
privilege of communicating, I bid you adieu. 
" Madam Amalia de Frese, 

of Stockholm, Sweden." 

January 9th I received the following from the same 
spirit : 

" Thanks, my dear old friend, Mr. Helleberg, for 
sending the communication to my daughter. I will 
be there when she reads it, and make her feel my 
presence. I am your friend, Amalia de Frese." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 173 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A PRAYER FROM MADAM EHRENBORG. 

Jan. 26, 1882. And the following came on the slate, 
which I then copied word for word, and herewith re- 
produce verbatim et literatum : 

" My dear old friend. According to promise I am 
here, and I will endeavor to write yon a prayer : 

" Oh, thou Infinite Spirit of Truth, soul of all things, 
we humbly approach Thee at this hour. We know 
our praises can not exalt Thee for Thou art already 
infinitely exalted. We know how vain are our adula- 
tions of Thee, and that we can not change or make Thee 
other than what Thou art, a being permeating all 
things, ever pure and changeless. We know Thou hast 
existed in all the past, and for Thee and Thine there is 
no ending in all the measureless immensity of future 
time. Thou art infinite and perfect in all Thy great 
attributes of love, wisdom, and power, the true and 
everlasting trinity. We know we serve Thee best 
when we seek and labor for the good of Thy chil- 
dren, whether they be in realms of spirit being or in 
mortal life. We feel the inspiration of Thy words — 
' Do good to all ' — wafted to our anxious ears on every 
breeze, and we bow in reverence before the eternal 
words written on all the works of Thy mighty crea- 
tion, 'Love one another even as I love all/ We look 
not for Thee in temples of human construction, or in 



174 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

buildings vainly dedicated to Thy worship, but we 
discover Thee in all that Thou hast brought into be- 
ing by the creative energies of Thy almighty power. 
We hear Thy majestic voice in the almighty roar of 
old ocean and in the gentle murmu rings of the brook- 
let. We hear Thy voice in the thunderings of the 
storm king and in the soft whisperings of the zephyrs. 
We behold Thee in the stately form of the oak and 
in the sweet blossoming and blooming flowers. Where- 
ever we go, wherever we look, and in whatever we 
behold there Thou art ever present. Oh, Thou mighty 
master spirit of the universe, bless Thy children every- 
where. Strengthen Thy messengers, ministering 
spirits from the land immortal, to teach those still in 
the bonds of the flesh the sublime and eternal truths 
of immortality. May Thy children in mortal learn 
that wisdom which teaches righteous living, heroic 
dying, life-unending and eternal progression. Shower 
divine blessings on this aged brother who is seeking 
to know of Thee through Thy ministering angels. 
Strengthen his faith, increase his knowledge, cheer his 
heart, and as he nears the end of the journey of mor- 
tal life fill his soul with that joy that can only be be- 
stowed by the spirits of dear ones who have passed 
to the better land. Bless, oh Father, this noble me- 
dium, a chosen instrument of the spirit world, through 
whom to transmit messages of love. Bless all such 
instruments. Encourage and invest with continually 
increasing powers this noble band of spirits, and en- 
able them through their chosen and beloved medium 
to bless and cheer the hearts of many by the imparta- 
tion of light divine, and may that light radiate to 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 175 

their souls as the sunbeams descending from the golden 
orb of day illuminates the physical world. Accept, 
oh Lord, from the fulness of our souls this our earn- 
est prayer. Amen. 



176 SPIEIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

GREETINGS FROM HORACE GREELEY, J. G. BENNETT, AND 
HENRY J. RAYMOND, TO E. B. PLIMPTON, ASSOCIATE 
EDITOR OF THE CINCINNATI " DAILY COMMERCIAL." 

During the visit of the celebrated medium, Henry 
Slade, to Cincinnati, recently, a reporter of the Cin- 
cinnati " Daily Enquirer " visited him and secured a 
sitting, during which Mr. F. B. Plimpton, associate 
editor of the Cincinnati "Daily Commercial," by in- 
vitation was present. The day following, the " En- 
quirer " reporter, in speaking of the seance in the 
columns of his paper, referred to Mr. Plimpton in 
disparaging terms as being a believer in Spiritualism, 
etc. In the succeeding issue of the " Enquirer " Mr. 
Plimpton had published over his proper signature the 
following rejoinder: 

DR. SLADE AND HIS " CONFEDERATE." 

To the Editor of the Enquirer. 

Your reporter makes much of my accidental meet- 
ing with him at the rooms of Dr. Slade. I had called 
on the doctor's general invitation (he being an entire 
stranger to me, not with the thought of witnessing 
any of the so-called manifestations, but to have a 
chat with him touching some points of his European 
experience. 

In the course of our conversation he incidentally 
mentioned that he had an appointment with a press 



SPIBIT COMMUNICATIONS. 177 

representative, and shortly afteward your reporter 
came in, and was introduced to me as " Mr. Culbert- 
son." Having met the young gentleman on a recent 
social occasion, when he was introduced to me under 
his right name, his identity was not obscure to me, 
hut it would have been the height of impoliteness on 
my part, an invited guest, to have interfered with any 
little plan he may have formed to entrap the magi- 
cian. It is a trivial and common form of deception, 
and as Dr. Slade does not profess to he a mind-reader, 
it is as easy for a stranger to impose on him in that 
way as upon an ordinary person. So, as " Mr. Cul- 
bertson " your reporter remained from the beginning 
to the end of the sitting. 

Why Dr. Slade changed his mind and allowed me 
to remain during the seance I do not know, and do 
not care to know. It seems, however, to have ex- 
cited the suspicions of your acute reporter, who 
amusingly presents me to your readers in the light of 
a confidante of the doctor. This is too ridiculous to 
receive serious refutation. It was the sheerest acci- 
dent that I was present at all. 

Your reporter very fairly states the phenomena wit- 
nessed, except where his lively imagination charm- 
ingly interferes with strict accuracy, and tempts him 
to adorn his narrative with divers brass ornaments of 
his own invention. But he must pardon me if I de- 
cline to accept him as an expert at his own valuation, 
since by his own statement he stands condemned of 
practicing the only deception at all explicable, and 
then not telling the truth about it. 



178 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

He is, however, entitled to his own conclusions, 
which must he very valuable, considering the time he 
has devoted to investigation. There is no accounting 
for the superior insight which a young man has into 
phenomena, that have baffled old heads after years of 
patient study. It may be remarked, however, that 
to denounce as trickery and fraud phenomena other- 
wise not easily explained is a ready way of ridding 
one's self of the whole business. 

Though not giving much attention of late years to 
the subject, I am a Spiritualist, and not ashamed to 
own it. The time has passed when it is necessary to 
doffone's hat and apologize in this or any other intelli- 
gent community for being a Spiritualist. It is, at 
least, as creditable as to discourse without knowledge 
and condemn without investigation. 

F. B. Plimpton. 

On Thursday, February 2d, at Mrs. Green's, among 
other matter received came the following : 

" Respected Sir : We are here this morning to ask 
you to go and see Mr. Plimpton, of the " Commer- 
cial," and say to him for us, that we not only thank 
but congratulate him for his recent bold and manly 
utterances in favor of truth. The time has arrived 
for those blessed with the knowledge presented by 
Spiritualism to bravely avow it, and we are glad that 
he has taken the initiative in the Queen City of the 
West. The time has. truly passed when such avowal 
entails social ostracism or any kind of persecution. 
The banner of truth has been unfurled, and ye brave 
souls marshal the veteran hosts under it and onward 
to victory. You will rind less obstruction than you 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 179 

think, for believers in this mnch-abiisecl gospel of 
light are more numerous than you conceive. Besides 
you have myriad hosts of heaven at your backs. 
Falter not. move onward with firm and confident 
step. Be steadfast and true and bright laurels await 
you. The victory is not always to the strong, but to 
the active, the vigilant, and the brave. The army of 
Spiritualism has already swollen into huge propor- 
tions, and its ranks are being daily augmented. The 
decree has gone forth and the triumph will come. 
Truth shall arise for the eternal years of God are her's, 
and nothing can stay or retard the onward march to 
victory of the grand army of invisible hosts. 

" Horace Greeley. 

" J. G. Bennett, Sr. 

" Henry J. Raymond. 



180 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

COMMUNICATIONS FROM HORACE GREELEY, GOVERNOR 0. P. 
MORTON, AND A. P. WILLARD. 

On the 7th of April, among other things, I received 
the following : 

u Unless some changes are made in the conduct of 
your government direful consequences are to be ap- 
prehended. Under the present mode of administra- 
tion it is continually subjected to very heavy strain- 
ing, and it can not much longer stand it. Many re- 
forms are needed, and the requirements of patriotism 
demand that they be seriously considered and acted 
upon. Your civil service is entirely wrong, and can 
not be continued much longer without serious detri- 
ment to your form of government. The integrity 
and stability of your institutions are constantly men- 
aced by it. You claim that you have an elective gov- 
ernment. Is the claim true ? Thousands of impor- 
tant public offices are not filled by the elective voice 
of the people. They are filled by appointment from 
purely partisan considerations — for partisan purposes 
and as a reward for party services and party zeal. 
Fitness and worthiness are secondary and minor con- 
siderations. Hence arises clamorings of party strife, 
and the engendering of the festering sore curses of 
corruption. The Presidential office had better be 
abolished than to continue it invested with such vast 
patronage in dispensing official appointments. There 
exists no valid reason why -the people themselves 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 181 

should not select from their neighbors postmasters, 
revenue officers, etc., as well as state, county, and 
township officers. The Presidential office should either 
be dispensed with or its incumbent elected by a direct 
vote of the people without the intervention of the 
cumbersome and corrupting electoral machinery. The 
electing of men to elect other men to office is the dodg- 
ing of a responsibility and the surrendering of a right 
of the people that can not be defended upon sound 
principles. 

" Another danger confronts you menacingly and 
demands watchful attention. It is the startling ag- 
gregations of wealth among the few, and wrung from 
the sweat of labor. These immense accumulations 
find utilization in the creation of merciless monopo- 
lies which have already assumed gigantic and threat- 
ening proportions in the United States. 

" Stock gambling is not a whit better in morals than 
any of the games of cards by which the unwary are 
fleeced out of their hard earnings. The participants 
and operators in the one are no better than in the 
other, and yet the one, under your Christian civiliza- 
tion is applauded while the other is denounced. How 
long yet will the people continue to be hoodwinked 
and handicapped by designing political tricksters. 
We have seen the star of hope, but now behold the 
star of promise rising in its refulgent splendor, and 
therefore we take heart. H. Greeley." 



■ HON. 0. P. MORTON. 

On the 13th of April the following communication 



182 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

was received, purporting to come from the late United 
States Senator from Indiana, Oliver P. Morton, viz.: 
"Amid the rancor and jealousies of party strife 
I came in for a full share of ahuse and vituperation. 
I was denounced most bitterly as an ambitious man, 
wholly unconscionable and indifferent as to the means 
employed in the accomplishment of party ends. Now, 
I frankly confess that I was not a saint in politics, 
nor always, politically speaking, perfectly orthodox. 
I am free to admit that I was so constituted that 
when I once believed a certain view to be sound and 
right I never hesitated to use all the appliances and 
machinery of party to secure its triumph. I was 
called a bold man in politics. I am proud of this, for 
it is in contradistinction to all that is sneaking. I 
aimed to always be right, and believed, in a certain 
qualified and honorable sense, that the ends justified 
the means. Those who are vociferating so loudly and 
screaming so painfully about bad and corrupt men, 
are generally traveling in the same boat, with the 
same sails spread to the breeze. In my mind and 
heart the country's good was always a paramount con- 
sideration, and I have as few regrets as most men who 
have devoted as long a period to public life. The 
man out of office feels himself called upon to denounce 
the man who is in, and affects to believe himself es- 
pecially endowed with the requisite qualities to 
purify the public service, but when safely ensconced 
in the incumbency he too soon finds himself a Barkis, 
who "is willing." There are many good and true 
men engaged in public political life, but none perfect, 
and you would be as successful in ransacking hades 
for an angel of light as in your efforts to find a per- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 183 

feet politician. Whatever is wrong and corrupt in 
your publie service and political life will never be cor- 
rected and pacified by the politicians alone. As well 
might you hope for a deadly eating cancer to eradi- 
cate itself, or the upas tree, with its deadly ema- 
nations, to give forth health-breeding and life-sus- 
taining exhalations. The remedy rests alone and 
wholly with the great masses of the people. The pros- 
titution of office to the debasing influences of bribery 
and corruption must be made odious by fixing austere 
penalties against the offender, and the prompt and 
indiscriminate enforcement of them. Misfeasance 
and malfeasance in public office ought to be consid- 
ered an unpardonable crime, and the guilty dealt 
with accordingly. Let the people teach their officials 
the doctrine that a continuation of political existence 
depends wholly on fidelity to the public interests, 
and the honest, faithful and efficient administration 
of their official trusts. When there is willful derelic- 
tion of duty, or a failure by grossly reprehensible con- 
duct to meet the just public expectations, not only 
relegate the offender to the walks of private life, but 
impose such punishment as shall be deemed adequate 
to the enormity of the crime, and will deter others 
from the commission of like offenses. 

" 0. P. Morton." 

GOV. A. P. WILLARD. 

May 19, 1882, I received the following from Ash- 
bel P. Willard, who I learn was at one time Governor 
of the State of Indiana, viz.: 

"Good morning, sir. I was, during my earth life, 
a politician, and, to a certain extent, a successful one, 



184 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

if success may be measured and determined by capti- 
vating the masses, and thereby securing elevation to 
office. I was in early life surrounded by poverty, and 
arose from humble conditions to the chief magistracy 
of the great commonwealth of Indiana. I was of the 
common people, always kept myself closely allied to 
them and their interests, and if you will excuse the 
egotism, always felt that I was near their hearts. I 
was called an orator, and probably to some extent 
this was true, for nature had favored me highly in 
that direction by organization, and I have occasion to 
be thankful that whatever gifts I may have possessed, 
they were aimed to be exercised for the promotion of 
the public good and the happiness and prosperity of 
the people. In youth I obtained a common educa- 
tion and taught school, and by teaching the young the 
rudiments of education I was enabled to study and 
observe the different tendencies and characteristics of 
mind. While engaged in this pursuit I discovered some 
properties of my own mind and some gifts of speech, 
which, in public utterance, subsequently distinguished 
me — not so much in the forum as on the " hustings" 
during periodical political excitements. I soon dis- 
covered that the power I was enabled to wield in po- 
litical disputations was attracting the people to me, 
and their voices at the ballot-box soon called me into 
official position and subsequent prominence. 

" Whatever faults I may have had, it is a proud sat- 
isfaction for me to know that it was never charged 
that I ever betrayed either a private or public trust. 
But in my day things were quite different from what 
they are now. The politicians in my day were im- 
bued with a different and a higher patriotic sense of 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 185 

obligation to the public interests and the general pub- 
lic weal. The great war of the rebellion seems to 
have poisoned the divine streams of patriotism, and 
the politicians of to-day seem to have drank too freely 
therefrom. You have passed through evil times, and 
they are still upon you. 

" The best minds of the spirit world are hard at 
work seeking to purify the waters of political life. It 
must begin at the fountain head. The people, the 
great masses who constitute the fountain of all political 
power, must be awakened to a realization of the 
wretched condition into which they have permitted 
public affairs to drift. There must be a quickening 
of the public conscience and a revivifying of the pa- 
triotism of the early fathers of the republic. The 
sanctifying influences of the patriotism of the revo- 
lution must again permeate the hearts of the people. 
The politicians, always cunning and watchful of the 
tendencies and driftings of the public mind, will either 
fall in with the new order of things, or be forced to 
retire and subside from public notice. The great 
minds and patriotic hearts of Washington, Lafayette, 
Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, Paine, "Web- 
ster, Clay, Douglas, Lincoln, Garfield, and hosts of 
others, are coming from the skies, leaving for awhile 
the glorious pursuits and joys of spirit unfoldments to 
speak to the people, and to lead them away from the 
demoralizing and corrupting influences of the parti- 
sanship of the day into better channels and loftier 
patriotism. 

"How shall the work of purifying the public ser- 
vice, restimulation of patriotism, and the placing of 
the waning fortunes of the country upon the high 



186 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

road of prosperity be done ? First. What is needed to 
be done? Second. How shall it be done? These 
questions, so pregnant with mighty results, should 
engage your earnest and prayerful consideration. 
These matters may be discussed and presented to you, 
and I am glad that the means will be furnished to lay 
them before the people. 

" If what I have said will be the means of arousing 
one patriotic citizen to the necessity of the govern- 
mental reformation now in contemplation by our 
spiritual congress, I shall feel then supremely happy 
that the little effort in writing these feeble lines was 
not in vain. 

" I was known when in the form, and am still, 

as ASHBEL P. WlLLARD." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 187 



CHAPTER XIX. 

COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE DRUNKARD, A MISER, WILLIAM 
GAILARD, WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, WILBERFORCE, 
TECUMSEH, A SUICIDE. 

On May 25, 1882, came the following communica- 
tion from a spirit, who declined to give his name, for 
reasons which he claimed to he prudential and per- 
sonal to himself. It is here given in his own words : 

" The hand of spirits who have this medium in 
charge, together with other exalted ones and one 
who is co-operating with them temporarily, have not 
only allowed, hut invited me, unworthy as I am, to 
come and tell my story. It is a short and terrihle one, 
and in deep sorrow and humiliation I proceed to tell 
it. 

"I was called, and justly so, a drunkard. By 
nature I was "blessed with a strong and rohust consti- 
tution, and I was, what is too often a curse, the child 
of wealthy parents. My father was rich, and this 
circumstance proved my ruin. I was nursed in the 
lap of luxury, never knew what it was to want, and 
consequently had no sympathy for those that suffered, 
or those immersed in the fierce struggles of poverty. 
I disdained to work with my hands for "bread, and 
knew not the hardships and sorrows of the trifling 
millions. My brow was never moistened b\ 7 the 
sweat of labor, and I grew up in the belief that the 
poor were intended and purposely created to serve the 
rich, and were deserving of naught but a bare scanty 



188 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

subsistence. My life of indolence and ease, my unin- 
terrupted hours of leisure, produced their inevitable 
fruit in their accompaniments of vice and immorality. 
Idleness, as I now know, is the parent of vice, and 
riches too frequently constitute the propagating life 
germs of wickedness. It was sadly true in my un- 
happy case. Oh, fathers, mothers, heed my warning 
counsel : Train your children to labor — to work, 
work, work. Allow but few idle hours for dissipa- 
tion and vice. Keep them away, if possible, from the 
club room, where intoxicating beverages are indulged 
in and made inviting by temptation, and where las- 
civious conversations only tend to stimulate and de- 
velop the lower passions and propensities of their 
natures. Wine, fair to look upon and with frequent 
imbibations exhilarating, contains within its alluring 
embrace a terrible lurking serpent whose venomous 
sting is fatal to all that is noble, grand, and holy. 
It strikes, figuratively speaking, its poisoned teeth 
into the very vitals of our being, and the effect fol- 
lows us to the other life with its terrible retributive 
vengeance. Oh, pity the poor inebriate, and erect all 
possible barriers against the terrible ravages of the 
fell destroyer. The Drunkard." 

a MISER. 

April 24, 1882, came the following : 

" I am permitted to come to you to-day to relate 
something of my history. There is a twofold purpose 
in my visit. I am told that this will greatly benefit 
me as a spirit still bound to my idol — gold — and that 
I may be instrumental in warning others to avoid my 
condition. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 189 

" I lived in the flesh more than three score years 
and ten, and when I laid down to die the only thing 
I regretted leaving was my gold and hoarded wealth. 
Oh, I thought, if I could only take it all with me 
how happy I would he. The world said I was a noble 
man, because being avaricious and greedy, I was suc- 
cessful in acquiring riches. My nobility of character 
was measured entirely by my ability to accumulate 
money and property. I want to publish it to the 
world that money, stocks, and landed estates, are poor 
capital to bank on in the spirit world. They will do 
here, and as the world goes, will make you respect- 
able, your society and influence coveted and all that, 
but you need a different kind of capital on this side 
of life. Gold here has great purchasing power. It 
buvs the luxuries of life, it even buys honor, virtue, 
and innocence, at a fearful sacrifice and cost to others, 
but its power, except its terrible evil following, ends 
with your life in the body. Nothing but good deeds, 
noble charities, and upright living pass current in the 
land of souls. I was a miserable, soulless miser, and 
my occupation and delight consisted in adding to my 
coffers, and in this endeavor I forgot and ignored con- 
science and every thing in the pathway of the pursuit 
of my idol. 

" I belonged to a fashionable church, owned a pew, 
attended the services, and flattered myself that this 
was all that was needful to prepare my soul for hap- 
piness in the other world. No appeals of charity were 
ever strong enough to touch my sympathies or open 
my purse strings. The tears of the widow, the wails 
of the orphan, or the cries of the suffering, however 
piteous, never touched my heart or obtained from me 



190 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

a single penny. I stinted myself and family and con- 
tributed nothing towards the relief of want and suf- 
fering, for I was so completely enslaved by the ac- 
t cursed love of and passion for money. This is a hu- 
miliating confession to make, but it is, alas, for my 
happiness, too true. I tell you money has been my 
curse, and oh, how terribly have I suffered. Years 
upon years have rolled by, and I have only partially 
paid the penalty of my folly. 'No wonder the rich 
man wanted some one to go back and tell his brethren 
of his fate. I hope I may hereby be the humble in- 
strument in warning others against the pitfall into 
which I have fallen. My gold came up before me 
here to greet my fond gaze, and when I would joy- 
ously reach out for it, behold it would elude my grasp, 
thus teaching me that it had no real existence except 
as the haunting specter of my unholy life struggle for 
its possession. The light of redemption now begins 
to beam upon me, flooding my soul with its bright 
rays of hope. I feel this will do me good, and I am 
very thankful for the opportunity. Let me be simply 
known as The Miser." 

WILLIAM GAILARD. 

William Gailard was an old personal friend, and 
the first one who called my attention to the subject 
of Spiritualism. He had been a Swedenborgian, and 
at times had officiated as a preacher in England be- 
fore he came to the States. At a sitting with Mrs. 
Green, June 2, 1882, I was pleased to receive the fol- 
lowing communication from him : 

" My old friend, Mr. Helleberg. I know you have 
been waiting and wanting to hear from me, and I have 
been just as anxious to respond. Here in the spirit 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 191 

world we have order and system, and each one must 
bide his time. My time has come to speak a few words 
to yon, and I assure you, my dear old friend, I seize 
the opportunity with pleasure I can not fully express. 

"I remember that the new light of spiritual truth 
came to me first, and I was the humble instrument in 
the hands of higher intelligences to assist you in ob- 
taining it. I was a medium for exalted spirits to lead 
you and others into the light, and that for a great and 
noble purpose, for way back to that time the plans 
were laid for the work in which you are now engaged 
so nobly and fearlessly. You are also, my dear friend, 
a medium, for it is true that all persons whom spirits 
can influence, however unconscious it may be to them- 
selves, are mediums in the true sense of the word. 

" You are helping others to grow and expand in 
spiritual knowledge, and you will be astonished when 
you come over to look back and see the work you 
have done, and to receive the . plaudit, 'Well done, 
good and faithful servant.' I have been blessed be- 
yond measure for the little I was enabled to do, but 
your reward will be greater than mine. Your oppor- 
tunities were greater and you cheerfully yielded your 
energies, time, and means, to the work. 

" If Spiritualists could only realize the treasures 
they are laying up for themselves by advancing the 
banner of truth, and the joys in consequence that 
await them on the golden shore, they would spare no 
pains or means and omit no effort in spreading the 
gospel of glad tidings. Oh, how I would exult with 
joy if the ISTew Church people would see and preach 
this beautiful and blessed truth. They will yet get 
their eyes open, and step out of their little creed-bound 



192 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

narrowness, and stand upon the broad and heavenly 
platform of the Lord and this spiritual troth, for they 
are one and the same. Swedenborg will speak to 
them from the higher life, and I pray they may beed 
him. Your old friend, William Gailard." 

WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 

At the sitting June 9, 1882, came the following: 
" For long years before the emancipation of the 
slaves I waged a fierce and bitter warfare against the 
institution of African slavery in the United States. 
The overthrow of that accursed institution became the 
absorbing and central idea of my soul from my early 
manhood. All other themes, questions, and subjects, 
I subordinated to that one dominant purpose of my 
life. When I had lived to see that institution swept 
out of existence, equal civil rights secured, and man- 
hood suffrage conferred, irrespective of race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude, I felt a sweet heavenly 
calm rest upon my soul, accompanied by the conscious- 
ness that I had not lived in vain. I felt that my 
efforts, however feeble, had helped to forward to a 
glorious consummation that long eventful struggle, 
and that by aiding in pushing along the car of prog- 
ress and freedom, the world had not suffered by my 
having lived in it. When the victory had been 
achieved I had advanced far ' into the vale of years,' 
and realized that my life forces were well nigh ex- 
hausted. They had been mainly expended in my life 
work as editor, lecturer, etc., in a warfare upon an 
unholy condition in which upward of four millions of 
human beings, with God-given souls, had been placed 
by sheer force and without their own consent. I saw 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 193 

and still see needed reforms that call aloud for help, 
willing souls, and ready hands. Reform in the cur- 
rency, reform in the tariff, reform in the civil service, 
a complete overhauling and reconstruction of gov- 
ernment, the overthrow of rum, and the enfranchise- 
ment of women. God will and is raising up noble 
souls for this noble work, and you may be assured 
that the spirit world is neither indifferent nor inact- 
ive. Spirit bands are forming every-where, instru- 
mentalities are being chosen, and agencies are being 
arranged for the work. The millions of high and 
exalted souls of the higher life will, ere long, descend 
upon the children of earth with their inspiring and 
propelling influence, and a revolution in the realm of 
mind will be inaugurated that shall eventuate in the 
accomplishment of needed reforms. I shall be among 
the number with all my strength and soul. 

" ¥m. Lloyd Garrison." 

wilberforce. 

July 7, 1882, at a sitting this day the following 
came : 

" The main struggle of my life was to secure the 
liberation of the enslaved in the dominions under the 
authority and jurisdiction of the British government. 
I lived to witness the glorious success of my labors 
and to rejoice thereat and therein. I fought human 
slavery ; I mean that slavery which is recognized by 
law — the right of one man to own another as a chat- 
tel, and to either transfer that ownership to another 
for a pecuniary or other consideration, or to transmit 
it as an inheritance. In doing so I had to combat 



194 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

wealth, prejudice, and biblical religion, for the bible 
recognizes this right. The struggle was long, event- 
ful, and bitter, but victory finally crowned the effort. 
The civilized world concedes now the justness of my 
cause and the value to mankind of its success. And 
yet you are now fastening upon yourselves a slavery 
more appalling and degrading than African slavery 
ever was, or the slavery of the heathen and strangers 
of the olden time. (See Leviticus, 25th chapter, 44, 
45 and 46th verses.) 

" The slavery to which I refer now is the slavery of 
labor to capital. If I were back again in the body, 
with my present light on the subject, I would fight 
this accursed slavery more bitterly than I did that 
other species of slavery, which was bad enough, but 
infinitely less reprehensible than that which I am now 
discussing. 

"No oppression is so utterly merciless and uncon- 
scionable as that of capital upon labor, and no other 
form of oppression can be so serious and hurtful in its 
consequences. Here we behold a mighty conflict be- 
tween capital and labor. Capital making cruel and 
unreasonable exactions, seeking to obtain labor for 
an almost starvation pittance, while labor, unequal in 
the struggle, seeks to wrest from its adversary a de- 
cent and honorable requitement for its sweat. Capital 
triumphs and labor suffers. Let me tell you to-day, sir, 
and I would have the capitalists hear me, this contest 
will not always continue thus. Unless a spirit of jus- 
tice and fair dealing shall speedily characterize the 
treatment of the poor toilers by their wealthy em- 
ployers a mighty crash will come, an outburst of in- 
dignation in revolution that will render the bloody 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 195 

scenes of the past of trivial moment in comparison. 
The elements are generating, the storm clouds are 
surely gathering, and at a moment when least ex- 
pected they will burst upon the country and the world 
in proportions only equaled by the fierceness of the 
conflict and its bloody issues. Let those whom it con- 
cerns beware. I beseech them, beware in time. 

" WlLBERFORCE." 
TECUMSEH. 

On the 4th day of August, 1882, between the hours 
of 9 and 11 a. m., came the following, which can not 
fail to be of interest to all who feel that our Indian 
policy has been either wrong or ineffective, and that 
the Indians have not been rightly treated. The elo- 
quent simplicity of the communication can not fail to 
be observed : 

" A large delegation of Indians are here and wish 
to be heard. We have concluded to let them speak. 
I will write what their leader says in as nearly his 
own words as possible. Xettie, the Control" 

" We come to speak to palefaces at Washington. 
Me talk for my people — the redfaces in the hunting- 
grounds in the Far West where the sun goes down. 
Poor redfaces, nearly all gone. Paleface kill many 
and drive them from their old and much loved hunt- 
ing grounds. You tell them to go on reservation, and 
the big father at Washington take good care of them. 
They go. Big chief at big city send paleface agents 
to give them blankets, ponies, guns, and bread to eat. 
Paleface agent start big store in wigwam and cheat 
redface, and give him fire-water to make him mad 



196 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

and crazy. When my people see how they are cheated 
they get mad, and pnt on war paint and kill much. 
Big paleface chief say to blue-coat warriors, go and 
kill redface and make them come back, and let pale- 
face agent swindle much more. Now this is all wrong, 
and if wrong, why not make wrong right. Redface 
only handful, paleface mighty — like the leaves on 
trees. If redface mighty and paleface weak, how 
then you like it ? You then like redface be honest 
and not cheat, and do as big preach say about golden 
rule. Me no like you give my people fire-water or 
guns. Me much like better if you give red braves 
horses and plows, and build school-houses for little 
papooses. Teach them how to read and make big 
scratch (writings) and let them learn other papooses. 
Don't cheat. Put paleface clothes on redface, es- 
pecially redface papooses, and learn them how to build 
big houses and how to raise big much to eat and sell. 
Then soon redface no more like hunting ground, but 
will love paleface and paleface ways. This much bet- 
ter than kill. Great" Spirit no like paleface to kill 
redface or redface kill paleface. All die soon enough 
anyhow. Upper hunting grounds are full of redfaced 
spirits, and they all feel bad and sorry for redface in 
your land. Me no talk much more. Me sorry — me 
could cry. Poor redface few — soon all be gone. Be 
good to few left, and Great Spirit and redfaced spirits 
love you much. Spirit chiefs Ouray and Black Hawk 
and many more are here, and all plead for their peo- 
ple in lower hunting grounds. They all feel much 
bad. Good bye, chief and squaw. Me thank much 
for this big scratch. Tecumseii." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 197 



AN UNKNOWN SUICIDE. 

August 28, 1882, the following was received, viz : 
" I lived in the body thirty-five years and eight 
months. I went out by my own hand into the great 
beyond. I was a singularly constituted man, and a 
very unfortunate one. Self-love is said to be a great 
ruling passion, but I never loved myself, and of course 
could not be expected to love anybody else. My par- 
ents were in no way assimilated and lived very un- 
happily together. They quarreled and wrangled con- 
stantly, and this embodies my earliest recollection 
when a child, and it made an impression upon me 
from the influence of which I never recovered. They 
seemed to hate each other, and I was created and grew 
up under the same influence of hate, and hate accom- 
panied by a feeling of vengeance and revenge became 
a predominating trait of my character. My parents 
both belonged to church, and I have seen them both 
shout in church (they were Methodists) and go home, 
quarrel and fight for hours afterwards. Father would 
get drunk and mother would eat opium. I tell you this 
disgusted me with religion, audi concluded it was all 
a farce. I believed death ended all, and that religion 
was either a delusion or downright hypocrisy. Be- 
sides I had a very delicate and feeble physical organ- 
ization which made me more morose and sullen. 
Melancholy finally seized me as a victim, and in a 
moment of utter despondency I blew out my brains 
and ended life in the body. But I could not get away 
from life — death I found to be but the commencement 
of another life, and I had made the great blunder and 
committed the foul deed of taking my life into my 



198 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

own hands. Seventy-seven years have passed since, 
and the terrible shadow of the act of suicide still hov- 
ers over me and gives me pain and anguish. But 
thank God, I begin to climb up the mount of progres- 
sion — but the summit is still far away. Oh, people 
of earth, 1 pray you become not the suicide. Wait 
with patience until nature's laws calls thee hence. 
Remember the fate of the suicide is terrible and hard 
to overcome. And in my sad history fathers and 
mothers may learn an instructive and profitable les- 
son, for my father and mother have suffered more than 
I. Thanks for your goodness. Good bye. 

" A Suicide." 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 199 



CHAPTER XX. 

COMMUNICATIONS FROM THOMAS PAINE, MARGARET FULLER, 
AND THANKS OF SPIRITS. 

Aug. 31, 1882. The following from the spirit of 
Thomas Paine, on capital punishment, was received: 

" I am here to-day, sir, to say a few words in op- 
position to capital punishment. What is the argu- 
ment in its favor? One citizen has taken the life of 
another citizen, and you say he has thereby forfeited 
his right to live. Prom whence do you get this doctrine? 
Does it belong to and is it a reflex of your boasted 
Christian civilization ? The Mosaic law demanded an 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but is this the 
doctrine of Jesus, the assumed founder of Christian- 
ity? If you think so, you certainly have not read 
him attentively, and it may be profitable to you in 
considering the subject to read the Sermon on the 
Mount, as recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew, 
especially the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth verses. 

" You coolly and with the utmost deliberation usher 
these imperfectly developed souls out of one life into 
another, thereby ridding yourselves of human mon- 
sters and fiends by sending them to be cares, pests, 
and annoyances to the people of another world. And 
this you call Chistian charity, benevolence, and fair 
dealing. But you say they can repent before they are 
shuffled off by the hangman, and thus be saved. If 
this be true, the best service you can render all vil- 
lains and evil disposed persons is to hang them as the 



200 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

surest means of saving their souls in heaven, for if 
they are permitted to live and die natural deaths the 
chances are that they will never repent, and all con- 
sequently go to hell. But this is a subterfuge. It is 
the unholy spirit of revenge that actuate you, and 
you consider not the victim's good. Certainly heaven 
is not yearning for these cutthroats and outlaws, and 
hell, according to orthodoxy, is already crowded and 
overpopulated. One man, either through ungovern- 
able passion or malice prepense, takes the life of an- 
other. ]STow, he generally has some real or imaginary 
grievance, but without even this excuse your courts 
take the other life, just as if one wrong justified an- 
other. Your plea that protection to society demands 
this course is untenable. Is it true that no adequate 
protection can be afforded except by judicial murder? 
Would not the confinement of the culprit subserve 
the same purpose, with the additional humane advan- 
tage of allowing the opportunity to reform and be- 
come better, and best of all, to let the voice of God, 
through natural law, call him from time to eternity. 
" Christians can not rise up to the sublime altitude 
of adapting, in practical life, the ennobling teachings 
of the !N"azarene including love and forgiveness, as long 
as they believe the God of their worship to be a vin- 
dictive and passionate being full of spleen and ven- 
geance. To believe in such a God naturally inspires 
the effort to imitate his characteristics, and hence 
they become spiteful and vengeful, and in favor of 
taking human life on the scaffold, because a badly or- 
ganized mortal in a fit of rage or in the pursuit of re- 
venge for, perhaps, an imaginary wrong done him, 
slays his neighbor. The killing of one man by an- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 201 

other is no worse than judicial murder, and both are 
relics of barbarism and a past heathen age, and you 
ought to have done with them. To-morrow, Margaret 
Fuller on prayer. Thomas Paine." 

MARGARET FULLER. 

Sept. 1, 1882, came the following writing from the 
spirit of Margaret Fuller : 

" True prayer is the yearning of the soul for some- 
thing it feels the need of. It need not be expressed 
in silent words or oral declamation. Every aspiration 
is in the true sense a prayer. Every aspiration, 
though silent, has its potencies, reaches out and at- 
tracts its kindred spiritual affinities. If your soul- 
yearnings and aspirations are of a sordid and purely 
earthly nature, they affect and attract corresponding 
influences in the invisible realm of being, permeate 
your soul and limit it to that sphere. If, on the other 
hand, your aspirations pertain to the realm of the 
lofty and beautiful, you render yourself thereby recep- 
tive to the grand and ennobling influences of the pure 
and heavenly. If you pray for riches in a worldly 
sense you prepare the mental, moral, and spiritual 
conditions to attract the spirit misers and the selfish. > 
If you pray for spiritual illumination and aspire to 
moral excellence, you bring to your sphere and aid 
the noble and unselfish children of the more exalted 
spiritual spheres. If you meditate a wrong deed or 
action you will be succeessful in drawing to your as- 
sistance those unfortunates of the spirit world who 
have not outgrown the tendencies, inclinations, and 
imperfections, of their earthly careers and conditions. 
Hence the very great importance of being mindful for 



202 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

what you pray. The spiritual influences that you at- 
tract and which thereby become associated with you, 
exert a powerful influence in directing your footsteps, 
molding your actions, and in the construction of your 
spiritual temple in the new life just before you. 
Would you desire the companionship of spirit pau- 
pers and spirit tramps, become one yourself, and you 
may depend on success. Would you prefer rather to 
be attended by good and noble spirit and spiritual in- 
fluences, aspire to be good and noble yourself, and 
your success is assured. Of one thing be. enlightened, 
your spirit attendants during your mortal journey 
will be no worse than you are yourself. It is yourself 
that prepares the conditions and not they. If your 
actions are upright, your aspirations noble, and your 
thoughts elevated toward the divine, you thereby ex- 
ert a positive repellant power that no evil can over- 
come, and in such a generated atmosphere an evil 
influence can no more dwell than oil can mix with 
water. Bear this great law in mind, and take advan- 
tage of it and you are safe and all will be well. Heed 
it not in conduct and thought and it will rebound 
upon you with damaging effect. 

" Hesitate not to invite undeveloped spirits to your 
seances if your purpose be to benefit them. For such 
a motive on your part will draw around you the en- 
circling influences of angels and the divine protecting 
love, and no harm can befall you, but much good to 
the poor spiritual wanderers in spiritual darkness. 
They must be lifted up, and you can be of great serv- 
ice as auxiliaries to the advanced spirits who labor 
for their redemption. By such a course you are pray- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 203 

ing sucli prayers as will bring upon you blessings from 
the angelic spheres Margaret Fuller." 

At the same sitting came the following closing re- 
marks by the medium's immediate control : 

" I am requested to state that with this ends the 
present book, and to express to you, Mr. Helleberg, 
the thanks of the spirits who have communicated for 
your attentiveness, painstaking, and honest purposes. 
The band of the medium have done all they could to 
assist them and from them have received benedictions. 
Besides it has been a labor of love on our part to be, 
in any sense, assistants to so many exalted spirits. 

" ¥e also thank you for your gentlemanly deport- 
ment towards our medium, and for the earnest and 
honest interest you take in her welfare. I speak for 
the entire band. Nettie, the Control" 



204 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



[APPENDIX.] 

CHAPTER XXI. 

MRS. GREEN'S MEDIAL HISTORY. 

The following is a partial history of the develop- 
ment and mediumistic experiences of Mrs. Lizzie S. 
Green, the medium chosen by the spirits in transmit- 
ting the matter contained in this volume : 

She was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, on 
the second day of December, 1844, and consequently 
at this writing is in her thirty-eighth year. 

The following narrative of her mediumship was 
written by her husband, dictated by herself, and when 
written out was pronounced by her to be correct, and 
she adopts it her own. It is believed that this briefly 
recited history can not fail to be interesting to the 
general reader, since it contains matter and experi- 
ences not only absorbingly interesting but truly won- 
derful, and evidences the existence of a power that 
all thoughtful and candid persons will agree is worthy 
of investigation. 

Those who have enjoyed Mrs. Green's acquaintance 
socially for years invariably speak of her as a truly 
honest woman, faithful wife, loving mother, steadfast 
friend, in intellectual capacity far above and beyond 
her educational advantages, and as possessed of many 
other sterling qualities of heart. Those who have 
come in contact with her in the exercise of her me- 





w 




/O-^^y^^. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 205 

dial gifts can not fail to have been impressed with her 
frankness, simplicity of character, and the unques- 
tionable honesty of her nature. 

This tribute to her integrity and moral worth is 
given because well merited, and by one who not de- 
siring notoriety and fame wishes simply to be known 
as A Friend. 

NARRATIVE OF HER MEDIUMSHIP. 

" My conscious mediumship began in the fall of 
1868. It commenced by the opening of my spiritual 
vision, enabling me to see spirits, scenes, landscapes, 
etc., in their spirit world. When in the proper state 
or condition of passivity I have been, permitted to be- 
hold innumerable throngs of spirits, and at times to 
hear their voices. The phase of clairauclience added 
to my clairvoyance I prized highly, and sorely regret 
that shortly afterwards a fit of sickness deprived me 
of the gift of hearing spirit voices, and for a time 
seriously retarded my other mediumistic development. 
I am happy to be able to state, however, that with my 
gradual restoration to health my clairvoyant percep- 
tions began to increase in power and beauty, and now 
the voices of the arisen dear ones again greet my 
anxious and ever attentive ears. 

" I desire to state in this connection that in all my 
intercourse with spirits they have never deceived me 
in a single isolated instance. They have always been 
truthful and straightforward in their statements and 
dealings with me. 

" In the earlier stages of my mediumship and still 
sometimes I was frequently controlled to personate 



206 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

the peculiar and characteristic icliosyncracies of spirits 
during earth life, and to delineate their sickness and 
death. Sometimes I would be rendered entirely un- 
conscious and at other times only partially so. I shall 
never forget one memorable occasion of complete un- 
consciousness and the occurrence during it as related 
subsequently by eye witnesses. An old lady was pres- 
ent in the circle who I had never met before, and of 
whose history I had no means of obtaining the slight- 
est knowledge. At the time I was wholly ignorant 
as to whether she had ever been a mother or the ma- 
ternal head of a family, until I saw and described 
minutely a spirit standing by her side, who she readily 
recognized as her deceased son. ' What was the 
cause of his death?' she eagerly inquired. Almost 
instantly my consciousness was suspended, preceded 
by a violent tremulous motion all over my frame. I 
fell to the floor in a violent fit, and so terrible was it, 
and so true to nature in all its terrible details that no 
little alarm was manifested by the various members 
of the circle. It thoroughly demoralized and threw 
them into consternation. I need only add that old 
Mother Thompson (for that was her name) has never 
since doubted the return of the spirit of her son 
George, for the poor man had not only suffered a quar- 
ter of a century from that appalling affliction, epilep- 
tic fits, but actually died in one. I soon recovered my 
normal condition and received the apology from the 
spirit for having used me so roughly, stating that his 
extreme anxiety to convince his beloved mother of 
his presence induced him to disregard delicacy and to 
overcome all obstacles in the way of the accomplish- 
ment of his purpose. 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 207 

" A little girl came to me on a certain occasion and 
said to me, ' Please go and see my mother and tell her 
I am not dead.' 'Where does your mother live? ' I 
inquired. After giving me the necessary directions 
where and how to find her, I said : i But your mother 
is a stranger to me, and perhaps if I go to her on an 
errand of that kind she will drive me from her door.' 
' No she won't,' interposed the little pleader, ' she will 
be glad to learn that I am not under the cold ground 
but alive.' I marshaled the courage to • go, yet I 
greatly feared the result. I was met at the door by 
the one I desired to see, and without giving sufficient 
time to explain the object of my call, I was cordially 
welcomed indoors. After being seated, and after the 
usual courtesies had passed, I opened the subject by 
saying, ' You have a little girl that has gone to the 
other world ? ' i Yes,' said she, falling into tears, c she 
was a dear, darling child, and I have had no rest since 
she left me. She was the idol of my heart, and it 
seems that I can never become reconciled to her death. 
Really, at times, I can scarcely realize that she is dead.' 
Here a pause ensued, and her grief was so intense 
that the waters of sympathetic sorrow involuntarily 
flowed down my own cheeks. Rallying, however, as 
quickly as I could, I said : ' My good woman, your 
Mary is not dead. She stands there by your side and 
wants me to say to you, ' Mother, I am not dead ; do 
not weep for me, for I am still with you.' ' How ! 
What does this mean ? ' exclaimed the mother in ap- 
parent bewilderment, ' I saw her poor little precious 
body consigned to _ the cold and cheerless grave.' 
6 Yes,' I interrupted, ' but her spirit — the immortal 
and only valuable part of herself — was not buried be- 



208 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

neatli the ground. Hold, she wishes me to describe 
her, and further, to prove her identity. She is a 
bright, blue- eyed girl of eleven or twelve summers, 
light auburn hair naturally inclined to curl, and falls 
in beautiful ringlets around her neck, forehead of the 
Grecian mold, face even and rounded, with a mark 
resembling a raspberry under her right eye, and she 
died from scarlatina.' ' Why, did you know Mary 
when she was living ? ' was immediately asked. I as- 
sured her I did not. ' Does the description fit her ? ' 
I inquired. 'Perfectly,' was the reply; 'who told 
you about her,' she added. I answered : " My good 
woman, believe me, until to-day I did not know you 
were in existence. The facts I have stated to you I 
obtained from your Mary without the slightest knowl- 
edge of either your or her history.' After further 
conversation on the subject, and after describing other 
spirits, whom she readily recognized, the interview 
terminated, with a,'pressing invitation to return, and 
the assurances that she had derived from my visit in- 
expressible joy and happiness. In a few days there- 
after I was unexpectedly called away from St. Louis 
and have never returned. Letters from friends who 
were cognizant of the circumstance as related by her- 
self, inform me that Mrs. Collins is happy in the 
knowledge of spiritualism, has become reconciled to 
the temporary absence as to physical form of her 
child, and sends me her benedictions. 

" In 1869 while holding a circle at Aurora, Ind., com- 
posed of a few intimate friends and neighbors, a gen- 
tleman — a stranger to all of us — applied for admission, 
stating; that he had been left bvthe east bound train, 
and not being able to resume his journey until the fol- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 209 

lowing morning, and hearing of my mediumship, he 
desired, if agreeable, to have a sitting, or be allowed 
to join the circle for that occasion. My husband cor- 
dially assented. Our stranger friend had been seated 
but a short time when I saw a spirit forming by his 
side. I watched the process, and to my utter aston- 
ishment, which I at once made known, the spirit had 
a rope around his neck and presented a frightful ap- 
pearance. I observed, i I see a spirit with a rope around 
his neck, with tongue protruding,' etc. ' Describe him, 
madam, if you please,' spoke the stranger. I did so ; 
the spirit for the purpose changing his appearance to 
that of his natural condition. The stranger became 
very much excited, arose, seized his hat, and nerv- 
ously remarked, ' This is a great test to me. Several 
years a 2:0 I was sheriff of an interior county in Indiana, 
and that man, Jim Roberts, was sentenced to be hanged 
for the murder of his father-in-law, and I am the one 
who executed the sentence of the court.' When in the 
act of taking his departure, he suddenly turned around, 
and plaintively inquired : ' Has Jim got any thing 
against hie? I only did my duty as an officer of the. 
law.' On being assured that no ill feeling was enter- 
tained by the spirit against him, but that he appeared 
as he did more for the purpose of a test than any thing 
else, he took his departure. I have never seen him 
since. He gave me, however, considerable notoriety 
in the community by relating his wonderful expe- 
rience with a spiritual medium, and advised everyone 
to shun mediums unless they were prepared and will- 
ing to have everything connected with their past lives 
revealed and made known. Perhaps this abused spirit- 
ualism may yet become the instrumentality of com- 



210 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

pelling people to walk uprightly in their dealings with 
their fellowmen. 

" These are a few among hundreds of such instances 
that I might relate, hut the space allotted will not per- 
mit. I wish now briefly to refer to another phase of 
my mediumship. At various intervals I have had pro- 4 
phetic warning, and prophetic revelations have also 
been given me. I have also had what might be ap- 
propriately termed panoramic visions of past events 
of those both in and out of the body, and of events to 
transpire in the future of earth life. These visions, 
especially those prognostic of the future, have been 
truly wonderful. It is an oft quoted saying that ' com- 
ing events cast their shadows before,' and there re- 
mains no doubt in my mind but what spirits — whether 
all, I am not prepared to say — can sufficiently forecast 
the future as to reveal events and actions concealed 
from mortal discernment in the bosom of coming time. 
Let me mention a few instances in my own experience 
as evidence of the existence of this power. 

" In 1869, myself and husband were holding a seance 
alone, at Aurora, Ind. We were living in the lower 
part of the city, near the river bank. Aurora is sit- 
uated on the banks of the Ohio river, twenty-five 
miles below Cincinnati, Ohio. A little above the cen- 
ter of the city fronting the river a small stream, called 
Hogan creek, empties into the Ohio. Three or four! 
hundred yards above the junction of the two streams 
and on the banks of the aforementioned creek, is lo- 
cated the mammoth distillery, owned by Messrs. J. & J. 
"W*. Gaff & Co. It has been consumed three times by lire 
and as often rebuilt. At the time of which I am speak- 
ing, we put blankets up to the windows in the room to be 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 211 

used for our dark circle, and by this means effectually 
excluded all external light. After extinguishing our 
lamp light, we sat patiently, awaiting manifestations. 
In the course of a half hour I saw and said, i I see a 
large brick building on fire. The light from its as- 
ceucling flames is flooding the river in front of the city. 
There, I see a poor man burning up in the fire. I see 
its majestic walls crumbling to pieces and falling into a 
huge mass of ruins.' At this juncture, we heard out 
doors the cry of fire ! fire ! and soon the bells of the quiet 
little city began to announce to its citizens that the in- 
satiate fire-fiend was engaged in his terrible work of de- 
vastation and ruin. We hastened to the door only to 
behold, true to the mission previously given, the bosom 
of the river as brilliantly lighted up as though illum- 
inated by the rays of the sun at his meridian height. 
J. & J.W. GafF& Co.'s distillery was on fire and burned 
to ruins, and another concomitant of the vision was 
too sadly verified — a man was literary burned to ashes. 
" Soon after this occurrence, a very dear lady friend 
called to see me. She contemplated a trip to Indian- 
apolis, and intended to start on the morrow train. I 
said to her, ' Do not start to-morrow. Defer it until the 
succeeding day. I see an accident on the road, and I 
see written in the air these words, " Within twenty-four 
hours.' ' I prevailed on her to postpone the trip in ac- 
cordance with the warning of the vision. She had no 
occasion to regret it for the train on which she in- 
tended to be a passenger jumped the track before it 
reached its destination, and while no one was very se- 
riously injured, yet it might have been otherwise had 
my friend been on board. She might not have es- 
caped so luckily. 



212 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" The shocking casualty of the collision between 
the United States mail steamers America and the 
United States, on the Ohio river, between Cincinnati 
and Louisville, will be well remembered, especially 
by the people along the line of that route. The night 
of the painful occurrence I was a member of a circle 
held at the residence of Mr. Lewis Shirley, of Jeffer- 
son ville, Ind. I saw the collision, the boats on fire, 
etc., at an hour antedating by several hours the time 
when the unfortunate event transpired. So thor- 
oughly was I convinced that the verification of the 
vision was close at hand that I prevailed on a son of 
Mr. Shirley to meet the carrier-boy at the ferry land- 
ing early the following morning to procure a copy of 
a Louisville daily paper. When the boy returned 
with the paper I was not surprised to find in its col- 
umns an account of the disaster, which I had plainly 
and vividly, seen a number of hours prior to its actual 
occurrence. 

" On another occasion I saw a fire raging. I saw 
it was a two-story brick house. I saw men rolling 
barrels out of the burning structure, and from the 
rapidity of their movements and the ease and facility 
with which the barrels seemed to be handled and pro- 
pelled along, I concluded they were empty and so ex- 
pressed myself. My husband inquired, ' Where is the 
fire at ? ' I placed myself in as passive a state as pos- 
sible, but could get no answer. The questions were 
then asked : < Is it Louisville ? ' ' No.' ' Is it Jeffer- 
sonville ? ' ' No.' < New Albany ? ' < No.' < Indian- 
apolis?' 'Yes.' These answers respectively I saw 
written in the air or what appeared so to me. On 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 213 

that night, as we learned by the papers subsequently, 
a large barrel factory at Indianapolis was destroyed 
by h" re. 

" I will now relate one of a more startling nature 
and of more recent occurrence. The ill-fated steamer 
Pat Rogers was at the time of her destruction in the 
mail line service, and plied between Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and Louisville, Kentucky. She left port Louisville 
for Cincinnati at 2 p. m. At 4 o'clock, same afternoon, 
and two hours after her departure from Louisville, 
and nine or ten hours before the terrible casualty, I 
saw written in the air, ' Steamboat disaster to-night.' 
My husband remarked: ' See if you can not get the 
name of the boat.' Presently I saw plainly the name 
Pat Rogers, which was immediately followed by pre- 
senting the whole vision, the conflagration, and pas- 
sengers struggling for life amid the angry and turbu- 
lent waves. 

"I might narrate many more instances of this kind 
that belong to my individual experience, and volumes 
might be written if similar experiences of others 
should be included. 

" I come now to speak of my present powers and 
their development. When my husband had entered 
upon his second term as Mayor of the city of Aurora, 
he built us a home in a high altitude on a hillside 
overlooking the beautiful city in the valley below. 
Here in the purer atmosphere with quiet surround- 
ings were my present powers brought forth by a noble 
and trusty band of spirits whom I shall never cease 
to love for their fidelity to me and to truth, and for 
their ability and unceasing and intelligent efforts to 
advance the great and blessed cause of spiritualism. 



214 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

My dear spirit sister, Alice Yernette Winesburgh nee* 
Shirley, who, in her day, was a marvelous physical 
medium, has been and still is the active controlling 
spirit of my band, with others great and good, who 
sustain and aid her. She always signs her name sim- 
ply Nettie, by which she was called and known in 
earth life. She has clung to me with the true devo- 
tion of a sister, and has sustained herself in the posi- 
tion assigned her by the band with signal fidelity and 
ability. I shall speak more of this band toward the 
close. 

" In obedience to the request of the spirits we 
formed a circle for development, and found two gen- 
tlemen and their wives who were sufficiently liberal, 
and who had natural tendencies toward a belief in 
spiritualism. They agreed and we met twice each 
week, and it was not long before we discovered that 
power for physical manifestations was being devel- 
oped. We sat in the dark around an ordinary plain 
stand, on which was placed a slate and pencil, a small 
bell, and a paper horn. We also would place on it a 
goblet filled with water. The manifestations began 
by the stand moving around and tipping. This phe- 
nomenon soon occurred in the light, and by means 
of it we at first were directed and instructed, using 
the alphabet in spelling out words. We met regu- 
larly and sat patiently. For a few months the devel- 
opment was slow but surely indicated progress, and 
the invisible operators continually exhorted us to pa- 
tience, promising certain results from time to time, 
which they invariably performed. They stated to us 
what may not be generally known, namely, that all 
developments with a view to permanence are slow, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 215 

advancing cautiously, step by step, leaving" nothing 
neglected or uncared for. Besides the. health and 
well being of the medium should be carefully guarded 
and too oft by hurrying forward the development 
ruinous consequences resulted to the instrument and 
the success of the mediumship. We soon noted the 
fact that we were in the hands of careful, prudent, and 
able spirits, and we therefore implicitly obeyed their 
directions, and have never since had any occasion to 
regret it. Finally the bell began to ring, and the vari- 
ous members of the circle were touched by material- 
ized spirit hands. Also, names and words were writ- 
ten on the slate and occasionally materialized locks of 
hair would be found on the stand upon closing the 
seance, which, in a few hours, would wholly demate- 
rialize. This indicated materialization of spirit forms 
and was so announced to us. The next step was whis- 
pering to us through the paper trumpet, and by that 
means they were now enabled to give directions. 
After the lapse of about twelve months we were di- 
rected to procure a curtain for materialization, which 
we accordingly did, but before this the manifestations 
in the dark had become simply remarkable, not to 
say extraordinary. On putting up the curtain and 
taking my position behind it, several sittings passed 
without any appreciable result, until finally faces were 
discovered protruding from behind and above the cur- 
tain, two or three at a time, and after this it was not 
long until full form materializations were obtained. 
Upon the expiration of my husband's term of office, 
the band insisted that we should move to Cincinnati, 
if only for a year, assigning as the important reason, 
that they would be enabled there to collect and ap- 



216 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

propriate new elements necessary in the completion 
of the development. We had by this time learned 
that the wisest thing was to obey, and consequently 
in July, 1881, we moved to the Queen City. Soon 
after we got there the band concluded to abandon for 
the time being any further attempt to perfect the 
phase of materialization and demanded a tin trumpet, 
which was made according to their directions. In 
length, thirty-eight inches; at large end, four and 
one-half inches in diameter, and at the small opening 
one-half inch; and we commenced holding trumpet 
seances with amazing and astonishing results. Hun- 
dreds of the best citizens of Cincinnati can testify to 
the wonders of the trumpet circle in my presence. 
One seance written up Judge A. G. W. Carter, of Cin- 
cinnati, I here insert as illustrating partially only the 
magnitude of this power. It appeared in that excel- 
lent paper, Mind and Matter, of Philadelphia: 

" My wife and myself, by invitation, were present on 
Thursday night, January 26th, at a seance given to a 
select circle of ladies and gentlemen by Mr. and Mrs. 
Green, at No. 309 Longworth street, this city, where 
Mrs. Green daily and nightly sits, giving private 
seances through her mediumship to any person or per- 
sons who desire to converse with the spirits, or see 
manifestations, and learn about the spirit world. 
There were about twelve persons, ladies and gentle- 
men, present, and being seated according to the direc- 
tion of the spirits, a dark circle for spirit manifesta- 
tions was held, and with extraordinary success. There 
was a large trumpet or horn standing beside the table, 
and a small music box and a guitar and a tambourine 
on the table. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 217 

"It was not long before the music box began its 
music, as well as the guitar and tambourine, and they 
all floated through the air, around the circle, and above 
our heads, and sometimes touching each one of the 
circle, as they were giving forth their music. Singing 
was indulged in by the members of the circle, and dur- 
ing the songs, the long horn or trumpet moved from 
its place, and went about the circle, through the air; 
and through it, or inside of it, different spirits accom- 
panied the singing with their voices; sometimes so 
loudly as to take the full burden of the songs upon 
themselves. Then, when there was a cessation of sing- 
ing, by means of the trumpet the spirits would freely 
converse with us — some in whispers, and others in so- 
norous voices, so that the whole company could readily 
hear and easily distinguish what was said. 

"At one time one of the company, a Swede, Mr. 
Helleberg, sang a Swedish song, accompanying him- 
self on the guitar; and in singing and playing this song 
in his native and, to us, foreign language, he was ac- 
companied by a loud female voice, singing in his lan- 
guage, through this same horn. Mr. Helleberg then 
sang a Swedish love song, and was again, in perfect 
soprano harmony, accompanied by the female spirit 
voice. 

" These demonstrations I thought were most remark- 
able, as I had never seen nor heard the like before, and 
they fairly attested the great mediumistic ability of 
Mrs. Green. At this time, and indeed during the 
whole seance, Mrs. Green was in a profound trance at 
the table, and kept so by a rough and gruff Indian 
spirit, who called himself ' Chip,' and occasionally 
spoke to us in a rough and gruff waj^ about his ' medy,' 



218 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

and the power he had to invoke and exercise in keep- 
ing her in the profound trance condition. Ever and 
anon, also, a smart, witty and talkative Indian maiden, 
who called herself ' Winnie,' by the permission and 
condescension of i Chip,' would take possession of the 
medium, and talk most freely and interestingly to each 
and all of the members of the circle. 

" And, by the way, I must relate this peculiar and 
remarkable fact, the only time of its occurrence in all 
my long experience with the spirits. There was in 
the circle another trance medium, Mrs. Taylor, who 
was put into the trance condition very easily and 
readily. "Well, this spirit ' Winnie' would exchange 
from Mrs. Green to Mrs. Taylor every once in a while, 
talking through each medium with equal facility, and 
to the great delight and edification of the members of 
the circle. This was indeed something remarkable, 
and I ventured to inquire of the spirit ' Winnie ' if this 
was a common occurrence. She replied, through one 
of the mediums, that it was so uncommon that she 
never knew of it occurring at a circle sitting before; 
that spirits always had their own medium, and it was 
very seldom that they would or could talk through, 
more than one chosen medium, and especially at the 
same sitting of a circle, as was the case with us. 

" To narrate all that occurred at this remarkable 
seance would till many printed columns. Sufficient for 
the present to say, that we had all sorts of manifesta- 
tions from the spirits through the gifted medium, Mrs. 
Green, for the long period of three full hours, and yet 
the medium or the spirits were not at all exhausted, 
and apparently not even fatigued. The manifestations, 
it seems to me, were quite equal to any I ever witnessed 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 219 

from Maud Lord, or any of the best mediums, and con- 
vinced me beyond all manner of doubt, that the gifted 
Mrs. Lizzie 8. Green is destined to take a prominent 
and important stand in the glorious domain of me- 
diumship. Angels bless and take care of her in all her 
ways, A. G.W. C." 

"In the meantime, the independent slate writing 
progressed wonderfully, and now constitutes one of my 
best and most highly cherished phases. They write 
now with the utmost facility with their own material- 
ized hands, and, strange as it may seem, they have act- 
ually written without the presence of any visible pen- 
cil at all. They have written long messages on the 
inner surfaces of double slates, the parties holding on 
to them at the time the messages were being written. 
They have done this for me in the presence of C. G. 
Helleberg, John Winterburn and William *Layton, 
and others, honorable people of Cincinnati, who will 
take great pleasure in certifying to the same. I do not 
refer to these truly marvelous things in a spirit of ego- 
tism or self-boasting, for I am entitled to no credit ex- 
cept in so far as I may have, by prudent conduct, hon- 
est living and carefulness, assisted in securing the 
proper conditions for the invisible intelligences — I 
mean invisible to mortal eyes only. While I naturally 
feel proud of these noble gifts, I have learned to be 
humble with them, as my spirit guides have so often 
admonished me to be. And I feel like using them 
for the benefit of humanity and the upbuilding of 
truth. 

"My clairvoyance was an early and permanent de- 



220 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

velopment and still remains with me, the other devel- 
opment not seeming to materially interfere with it 

" I have had with me for many years two Indian 
spirits, from whose association I have derived great 
pleasure ; and I have ever found them true, faithful 
and honest. The male Indian has never given me his 
full and proper name, telling me that it was ugly. He 
was of the Chippewa tribe, and has always been known 
as ' Chip.' Chip abhors fire-water and tobacco, and 
every thing immoral, and in very many respects widely 
differs from the leading characteristics of his people. 
The Indian maiden, whom we call Winnie, came to 
me in 1868, and gave her name as Winniepesaga, and 
said while quite young she was drowned in a stream 
of water in the Far West. She is sprightly, quite talk- 
ative, exceedingly smart and interesting in conversa- 
tion. Naturally gifted with clairvoyant powers and 
prophetic abilities, she has given very many remarka- 
ble tests, and by reason of her equability of temper, 
general good disposition and real cleverness in collo- 
quial gifts, she is generally well liked by all who have 
come in contact with her spirit ministrations. She has 
controlled me for years, does yet, and her influence is 
sweet, soothing and strengthening. Captain Oliver C. 
Curry died at Jefferson vi lie, Inch, in 1874, and was a 
lawyer by profession, and was for a long time city at- 
torney ot that city. He was a cousin of mine, and has 
belonged to the band for two years, and has been ex- 
ceedingly active, especially in the trumpet seances. By 
his suavity, intelligence and witty sayings, he has made 
himself quite a favorite with many. Assisting in the 
development, I have had with me several spirits fa- 
miliar with the laws of science, including a distin- 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS, 221 

guished French scientist, our own Franklin and 
Professor Mapes. They seem to have only been en- 
gaged with the band temporarily in aiding the ad- 
vancement of the development. They have my sin- 
cere thanks and profound gratitude. I come now to 
speak of another spirit, although of an humble name, 
yet a grand and highly progressed one, who has been 
my leading counsellor, adviser and friend. In 1868, 
I laid away the lifeless form of a dear little boy, and 
in my unutterable grief this noble spirit first appeared 
to me and gave me words of consolation. He has been 
with me ever since. He passed out of the form in the 
State of Georgia at the early age of thirty-three and 
had been at the time he came to me upwards of fifty 
years in spirit life. He always inspires me as being 
the very embodiment of purity itself, and his whole 
ambition seems to be to do good. This spirit also pos- 
sesses wonderful prophetic power, and communicates 
with me only in case of an exigency, when I am in 
trouble, or otherwise need the sustaining and guiding 
power of the angel world. He gives me his name as 
Henry Teaney, and no Christian ever worshiped the 
gentle E"azarene with more devotion than I do my 
friend and guide, Henry Teaney. He is pure, noble 
and godlike, loves the right, hates the wrong, and 
never condescends to any thing little, hateful, or 
mean. 

" Here I close after again returning thanks from 
the inmost recesses of my heart to my honored and 
noble band of spirits engaged with and through me 
in the great work of advancing the kingdom of God 
in the assimilation of truths vouchsafed to the chil- 
dren of earth through spirit communion. 



222 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A VISIT TO SPLIT ROCK, KENTUCKY — CHRISTMAS GREET- 
INGS FROM IDA TO* HER PARENTS — ANNIE WINTERBURN 
TO HER BROTHER JOHN WINTERBURN, AND HIS TESTI- 
MONY AND HER FAREWELL TO THE MEDIUM, MRS. GREEN. 

Mrs. Green's home proper, is at Aurora, Dearborn 
county, Indiana. Aurora is a beautiful and enter- 
prising little city of live or six thousand inhabitants, 
and is located on the western bank of the Ohio river, 
twenty-five miles or thereabouts below Cincinnati, 
Ohio. It can be reached from Cincinnati in less than 
an hour's ride over the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, 
which passes through it. While her husband pursues 
the legal profession at Aurora, Mrs. G., in obedience 
to the wishes of her spirit guides and attendants, de- 
votes her time and medial gifts at Cincinnati from 
Monday until Saturday of each week, returning to 
her companion and daughter each Saturday, and re- 
maininff with them over the Sabbath. This statement 
is deemed proper in view of and as prefatory to what 
I am about to relate as occurring recently, and which 
can not fail to be estimated as a truly remarkable 
spirit manifestation. 

By the invitation of Mr. Green, Mr. Edwin Steb- 
bins, of Cincinnati, and myself accompanied Mrs. 
Green to her home at A urora on Saturday, August 
the 5th, for the purpose of joining a small party of 
excursionists on the day following to the celebrated 
Split Rock, some three miles down the river from 
Aurora, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. Our host 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 223 

had chartered a small propeller steamboat known as 
the Wave, which we boarded early Sunday morning 
(the 6th), and it required less than a half hour to land 
us at our destination. Our party consisted of our 
host and hostess and their daughter, Cora B. Green ; 
Mr. B. F. Vandegrift, his wife, three daughters and 
son ; James W. Shirley, wife, and two small children. 
During the afternoon we were threatened with a 
rain-storm, and our party divided, some going into 
the caves for shelter, others repaired to a farm-house 
near by. The rain passed around us, after which a 
party of five in number, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Green, 
Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift, and myself, reassembled on 
the summit of the elevation overlooking the Split 
Rock. It was suggested by me that we have a spirit 
seance, but we had no stand, slate or pencil. The 
novelty of a spirit seance on that noted spot was suf- 
ficiently suggestive and interesting to induce us to 
improvise a seat for the medium, which consisted of 
a couple of stakes driven into the ground and a fence 
rail placed on them. I took out my annotation book 
and with lead pencil placed it on Mrs. G.'s lap, and 
she threw over them a rubber circular, making the 
necessary coudition of darkness. We formed a semi- 
circle in front of the medium thus seated, and sang 
the " Sweet Bye and Bye," and " Nearer My God to 
Thee." In a few moments the covering over the 
writing material was raised up and down three times, 
indicating thereby that the writing had been accom- 
plished. In this way we received in rapid succession 
three communications, which I hereby transcribe and 
number them in the order of their production. 



224 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 



Number One. 

" Good afternoon. Nice picnic. Many spirits with 
you, including Madam Ehrenborg and Swedenborg. 
Nettie, Emil, and Ida send much love to Mr. Helle- 
berg and Mr. Stebbins." 

Number Two. 

" Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift's friends send their greet- 
ings from summer land. Also, Mr. Green's friends 
and relatives. All happy to be with you." 

Number Three. 

" God bless you all, and hope we may all meet on 
this spot again. Good bye. Nettie and Curry." 

We were not only delighted but enthusiastic over 
the success of our enterprise. Here on this spot, both 
romantic and famous in history, with illy-provided 
conditions, we had communed with the loved ones 
from the land of immortal souls. 

As the spirit daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, 
of Cincinnati, Ohio, is mentioned as belonging to the 
party of tourists that visited the planet Mars, and as 
communicating with others at Split Bock,. Kentucky, 
and for other good reasons, I have deemed it not in- 
appropriate to incorporate herein a letter of Mr. Steb- 
bins to the Spiritual Offering, a paper recently estab- 
lished at Ottumwa,Iowa, and which is ably conducted 
and devoted to the advancement of spiritualism. 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 225 

[For the " Spiritual Offering."] 
INDEPENDENT SLATE WRITING, 
BY 
EDWIN STEBBINS. 

On Christmas evening myself and wife secured an 
independent slate-writing sitting with Mrs. Lizzie S. 
Green, at 309 Longworth street, Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
we received the following communication from our 
dear spirit daughter, viz : 

" Merry, merry Christmas to you all ! I do not 
know r of a better Christmas gift than to give you a 
spirit communication on this memorable day. I am 
so happy and excited I can not write good. Oh, I 
have a beautiful home and am advancing in music all 
the time. I have a beautiful library of books. I am 
a teacher, and have a nice little class. We do not 
have as many scholars here in the spirit world as you 
do. We can not teach every one like we did here. 
We have to be attracted to each other magnetically. 
Therefore our work is not in vain, for by this method 
spiritual growth must ensue. We work in harmony 
together, and nothing occurs to retard our progress 
in learning. You would be surprised, and I rather 
think you are now, even at my style of composition. 
If you could see me as I am here, and hear me talk, 
you would see how fast I have progressed. Oh, how 
happy I am in my spirit home, but my heaven is not 
there. It is with my dear pa and ma, but duty calls 
and I must obey. I have been made extremely happy 
by your obedience to my will and all will be well. 
Henney says this is quite new to him, but when he 



226 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

saw you and me at his funeral his happiness was be- 
yond expression. When you laid away my form of 
clay you did not think to see me here to talk and 
write to my loved ones dear. 

" When you're sad and sometimes cry, 
Remember your Ida, dear, is nigh, 
To bless and comfort you while here, 
And guide you to a brighter sphere. 

" And when the time comes for you to go we will 
meet you with our golden boat, and row you safely 
over the beautiful river to our home that I have 
helped prepare for you. Now, thanking Mrs. Green 
for her kindness to you and Ida, I bid you good night. 
All the relatives are here, and send you their Christ- 
mas greetings. 

" Good night, good night, to all that's here, 
I leave and go to a brighter sphere. 

"Wishing you all success in the new year, dear pa 
and ma, ever hold sacred the Christmas gift I present 
you to-day. Good night, Mr. Green, wife and daugh- 
ter. Good night, my dear pa and ma. This indeed 
is the happiest Christmas I have spent since I left my 
earthly home. I must leave, but it is hard. Your 
loving daughter, Ida." 

" My daughter passed away on the 18th day of De- 
cember, 1875, at the age of seventeen, and she was an 
only child. The above message from her possesses 
peculiar value to me, for therein are a number of val- 
uable tests and evidences of her identity. My belief 
in the return of the spirits of the departed is of brief 
duration in point of time antecedent, and was mainly 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 227 

brought about through the mediumship of Mrs. 
Green. I can not express the real happiness I enjoy 
since I have been the recipient of this new light divine 
and I can only say, ' God speed the good work.' 
" Cincinnati, Ohio." 

ANNIE WINTERBURN. 

"Dear Brother : Oh, how happy I am to-day to be able 
to write you on the inner surface of a double slate with 
your own precious hands holding it with the medium. 
You did not need this as a test, for your mind is clear 
and your heart is in the cause, but we give it to you 
because others have been thus favored, and we have 
resolved that you shall not be neglected when the good 
things pertaining to spirit intercourse are being given 
to others. Oh, John, you do give us so much real hap- 
piness by your noble and upright conduct, and by the 
opportunities you give us to hold sweet communion 
with you. Thus our lives become interblended, and 
the happiness of all increased. Spirits do derive great 
benefit from mortals, and to that extent are depend- 
ent on them. When a child dies in the tender years 
of infancy unschooled in the multifarious concern- 
ments of mortal life, it is brought back into contact 
with human affairs that it may learn those experiences 
of earth which were denied it by its early and untimely 
departure from the form. In all the pursuits of your 
life each individual is constantly attended by spirits 
interested in the same, and in these and many other 
ways are spirits aided in their progress and happiness. 
Whenever and by whomsoever you are told differently 
heed it not, but rely on what I have stated. We are 
interested in your proper instruction, and we will not 



228 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS, 

lead you astray or into error. All those near and dear 
to you are here, and bid me to send you their love 
greetings They pray without ceasing that ycu may 
be kept steady and firm in your high resolves and noble 
purposes until the end, when you shall rejoice in the 
anthem of victory. Hold up yonr head, dear and pre- 
cious brother; be brave and resolute in the hour of 
temptation. Do no harm, but all the good you can in 
the world. And when the blessed angel called Death 
shall beckon you away from the labors and vicissitudes 
of mortal life to the sunlit evergreen shores of the sum- 
mer land, be assured that among the hosts of others 
who will meet and welcome you with happy and re- 
joicing hearts you will see and be enfolded lovingly in 
the arms of your loving sister, Annie.'*' 

"I, John Winterburn, resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
do hereby certify that the above and foregoing com- 
munication from my spirit sister came in the manner, 
to wit : I examined a double slate, and found it clean 
and without any writing whatever upon it. A small 
piece of slate pencil not larger than a grain of wheat 
was placed upon it and the slate closed. I then held 
on to one side of the slate, holding it tight together as 
folded, and the medium, Mrs. Green, held on to the 
other side. Soon we heard writing, and in the course of 
fifteen minutes the signal was given indicating that 
the writing was completed, whereupon the slate was 
opened, and on both sides of the inner surfaces was 
found, neatly written, the above communication. The 
t's were crossed, and the i's were dotted. I know, 
as well as I am capable of knowing any fact requiring 
the exercise of my senses in their normal state, that 



SPIBIT COMMUNICATIONS. 229 

the communication was written by invisible power, 
and I firmly believe it comes from the source it pur- 
ports to come, namely : my dear sister, now in spirit 
life. The seance was in broad daylight, and under 
circumstances that precluded fraud or deception on the 
part of the medium or any one else in the body. 

"John Wintfkburn, 185 Longworth street." 

" This same Mr. Wintorburn has had regularly one 
sitting a week with Mrs. Green for seven or eight 
months, and among other spirit relatives and friends 
who were active in communicating with him was his 
spirit sister Annie. She seems to possess considerable 
poetic ability, and occasionally wrote poetry to her 
brother. Recently Mr. Winterburn visited his mother 
country, England, and the last sitting with Mrs. Gr. 
before his departure, his sister Annie addressed the 
medium in the following feeling stanzas, which Mr. 
Winterburn copied as they came on the slate, viz : 

" Dear medium friend, both good and true, 
'Tis hard that we must part from you, 
And though we cross the surging main, 
We will return to you again. 

" Returning with our spirits' love and power 
From British isle or sunlit bower, 
Our fond hearts' loving blessings to impart 
To comfort and cheer your noble heart. 

" Dear brother's heart you have made glad, 
Dispersing sorrow and conditions sad; 
And where'er we roam, on land or sea, 
Our hearts shall turn in love to thee. 

" Farewell, dear medium friend, farewell, 
To thee our gratitude we ne'er can tell, 



230 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

We can only say heart's full of love, 
We'll meet you on the shores above. 

" And there, in that bright land of joy, 
Where mingles naught of earth's alloy, 
We'll lead thy steps with blessings rare 
To our homes above our joys to share. 

" Angels of light, refulgent bright, 
Be with you when you take you flight 
From scenes of strife and sorrows here 
To a just reward in a higher sphere. 

"Farewell, farewell, alas! farewell, 
The parting is like a funereal knell; 
But when you climb the golden stair, 
Your true friend, A nnie, will meet you there. 






SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 231 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

A SPIRIT PEELS A BONANA, AND EATS SOME OF IT, AND 
DIVIDES THE REST IN FOUR EQUAL PARTS — REPORTS OF 
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER ABOUT SPIRIT SEANCES AT MRS. 



I desire to speak of a recent manifestation, which 
baffles my ability to understand, and proves that spirits 
by some chemical process are enabled to operate upon 
material substances and cause them to vanish. I only 
give one instance, and leave the reader to his own re- 
flections and to adopt his own theory. I shall simply 
give the fact as it occurred. 

I have a little grand daughter, Julia Muth, in the 
spirit world. When in the form she was partially fond 
of bananas. On the occasion of the recent anniversary 
of her eighth birthday, the 13th of July, 1882, I went 
to Mrs. Green for a seance, taking with me a large 
banana. These slate-writing seances, as has been here- 
tofore explained, take place in the full light. I sat, 
as usual, opposite to Mrs. Green, with the small stand 
between us. I placed the fruit on a slate, with a short 
letter of greeting, and put it under the covering of the 
stand, while Mrs. Green held another slate of her own. 
The spirits, after writing on Mrs. Green's slate for 
about an hour, wrote as follows : " Grandpa, take your 
slate from under the stand," which I immediately did, 
and on the slate was written, " I peeled the banana, 
and ate some of it, too; your little Julia Muth." 

We removed the cloth covering from the stand and 



232 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

found the peelings on the floor, and on my slate the 
banana divided in four equal parts after the end piece 
had disappeared. We searched diligently, but with- 
out our effort being rewarded by the discovery of the 
missing portion of the fruit. Whither had it gone ? 

The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer is a leading as well as 
an extensively circulated paper, published at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, and, in October, 1881, Mrs. Green was vis- 
ited by a reporter of that paper, who was present at 
two of her trumpet seances. Although probably not 
a believer, he turned out to be a fair minded man who 
would not allow his prejudices, if he had any, to inter- 
fere with an honest account of what he saw and wit- 
nessed. In three issues of that paper, to wit, October 
16th, 18th and 21st, 1881, appeared his report of a visit 
to Mrs. Green, and two seances he attended. They 
are here inserted, in the order of the dates given. 

Issue of October 16th : 

" In a neatly furnished suit of rooms over Xo. 309 
Longworth street lives Mrs. L. S. Green, a spiritualist 
medium. Upon her last evening a representative of 
the Enquirer called. He was cordially received by the 
lady's husband, being tendered a seat in a parlor in 
which was a piano, a pretty set of furniture; while an 
old-fashioned kerosene lamp threw its brightest rays 
over the room from a mantel-piece. Seated in a rock- 
ing-chair was Mrs. Green, plainly dressed, of a modest 
and retiring disposition, and features that stamped her 
as a faithful and loving wife. The mission of the news- 
paper man was quickly explained. Her husband re- 
plied that as a rule mediums avoided reporters, as they 
were liable to distort and ridicule their statements. 
But where the thing is conducted honestly and openly, 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 233 

4 1 can not,' he said, ' see what we have to fear from- 
pnhlication.' 

■" In reply to a question, Mrs. Green said that she was 
ahout thirty-eight years old, and had heen a clairvoy- 
ant since 1868, her first medinmistic inclinations hav- 
ing developed that year. Her history since that time 
as a spiritualist has heen quite full of interest. Pre- 
vious to her "becoming a medium she was a memher 
of the Christian Church, and was as great a skeptic as 
one could find. So, in fact, was her husband-. While 
a memher of the Indiana Legislature in 1867 he at- 
tended a seance, where he received a message from his 
dead mother. At a subsequent one, another spiritual 
letter came to him, telling him that his wife possessed 
the powers of a medium, and asking him to bring her. 
to one of the circles. After some persuasion he finally 
gained her consent to go. She there saw her first 
spirits, that of an uncle of the medium of the assem- 
blage, who had his head cut off by a train of cars. 
From that time her powers' began to develop, showing 
themselves in messages 'that she wrote on paper or be- 
held in the air. Spirits as high as five hundred a clay 
presented themselves to her view. Her continued in- 
crease as a medium so worked upon her that she lost 
her health, and she was compelled for the time being 
to abandon the business. About twelve months ago 
she resumed her writing — this time on slates. Mes- 
sages were written on the inside of folded slates, and 
often, after a seance, a fluid would be found on the out- 
side of the slate, which, unless washed off then, could 
never be removed. This had been taken to chemist 
after chemist for analysis, and one and all had failed 
to make any thing out of it. 



234 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

" One evening a small lock of hair was found in the 
corner of the slate, in the center of which was a small 
lead pencil. At that time this was believed to have 
been placed there by some one in the circle. It was 
folded in a piece of paper to be retained, but the next 
day it disappeared. From this time out Mrs. Green's 
materializing abilities began. She had great success 
in her seances, and frequently described catastrophes 
which, on the following morning, were found to be ex- 
ceedingly accurate. She foreshadowed the explosion 
of the steamer Pat Rogers, and graphically described 
the collision of the United States with the America. 
The details of a fire at a neighboring place one even- 
ing were recited by her. The next day it was learned 
that the hour and facts were most wonderfully correct. 

" While the reporter and his friend were talking 
Mrs. Green called their attention to two spirits who 
were standing besides them, one a brother-in-law of 
the first-named, and the other a friend of the latter 
who died twelve years ago. Both were accurately de- 
scribed, much to the surprise and astonishment of the 
two skeptics. Mrs. Green, in explaining her power, 
said that she was entirely controlled by one spirit, and 
that when she first began to work it was shown by 
slaps on the hand, by shocks in her arms, etc. She did 
only as her influence compelled her to act, and while 
writing, etc., she knew not what she did, much to the 
surprise and astonishment of the two skeptics. . Many 
startling results of seances were recited, such as the 
sounding of trumpets, the ringing of bells, singing, and 
the appearance of different spirits were detailed." 

Insertion of October 18th : 

"Mrs. L. S. Green, the medium, ^ave a seance last 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 235 

evening to a few friends at her house, No. 309 Long- 
worth street. There were five people present, three of 
whom were skeptics of the worst kind. The gather- 
ing was seated in a medium-sized, plainly-furnished 
room. In the center was a small stand, over which 
was placed a heavy green spread. As an opening, the 
lady took a small slate upon which was laid a hit of 
slate pencil. This she held with one hand in under 
the table, and several messages were written on it in 
a clear and distinct hand. Then the cloth was removed, 
and on the table were placed a bell, two slates, washed 
clean, a glass of water, and a leather trumpet. At 
some distance from the medium stood a guitar, lean- 
ing against the wall, and a large trumpet, while near 
the newspaper man were two small trumpets. The 
light was then extinguished, the doors locked, and the 
seance begun. All took hold of hands, and one of the 
party sang. In a few minutes came a gentle tapping 
on the slates, then the bell rang violently, seeming to 
pass through air, returning and falliug on the floor. . 
The various members were touched about the face and 
body, and one exceedingly lady-like spirit took occa- 
sion to rub her hand down the reporter's face, testing 
fully the power of his nervous system. Singing was 
continued, when the guitar was heard to play, rising 
in the air, apparently passing around over the different 
persons' heads, hitting them lightly in the face, and 
finally landing in the reportorial lap. 

" A breathing spell was taken when one of the party 
varied the programme with a selection upon the or- 
gamina. The favorite old song, ' John Brown,' was 
given, and it pleased the spirits hugely, as a deep bass 
voice was heard to join in with an occasional blast 



236 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

from the trumpet. Then the trumpet took a trip 
around the circle, announcing its coming with a rap 
on the head or shoulders of each one. The bell rose 
in the air tingling rapidly and landed this time on the 
table. The familiar taps on the person were con- 
tinued, then there was a tremendous note from the 
trumpet, and a sweet voice joined in with Mrs. Green, 
as she sang, * Nearer My God to Thee.' Although 
the manifestations were quite good, especially to the 
reporter, who was continually dodging imaginary 
trumpets and blows, the medium said the weather was 
bad for the most satisfactory work. The spirits an- 
nounced that they were about ready to depart by a 
loud rap on the table and a sprinkling of those pres- 
ent with water. The light being turned on, the fol- 
lowing communication was found on one of the slates : 

" ' Good evening, gentlemen. We are glad to meet 
you. The spirit band of the medium authorize and 
request me to thank the representative of that great 
metropolitan journal, the Enquirer, for the terms em- 
ployed in reference to their medium and her gifts in 
yesterday's issue of that paper. This treatment, so 
rare, betokens a spirit of candor and fairness com- 
mensurate with this transcendently important subject. 
We extend you a cordial invitation to visit us when- 
ever and as often as it suits your convenience, and we 
shall always endeavor to treat you with courtesy and 
respect. , Nettie.' 

" The lines were very regular, the i's and t's are 
dotted, and the signature was especially plain, it being 
the name of one of Mrs. Green's controls." 

The third and last appeared in the issue of October 
21st, and is as follows : 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 237 

" QUITE INTERESTING — A SEANCE HELD LASf EVENING 

SKEPTICS AND BELIEVERS ASSEMBLE TOGETHER. 

"A very interesting: seance was held last evening 
at the residence of Mrs. L. S. Green, 309 Longworth 
street. Seven persons were present, including two 
mediums. The spirits were unusually frisky, and the 
manifestations were particularly gratifying to the be- 
lievers, and rather dumbfounding to the skeptics. 
The arrangements and room were the same as in the 
others previously described, except that there were 
more musicians present. Very excellent music was 
rendered by an orgamina, a violin, a guitar, and a 
music-box. The selections given were sweet enough 
to summon the most bashful friends of the medium 
from their spiritualistic retreat. The departed were 
less inclined to epistolary efforts, and si ate- writing 
was not conducted with any favorable results. 

"During the evening one of the gentlemen sang a 
Swedish song, accompanying himself on the guitar. 
A female voice at one time, and a powerful basslater, 
were heard plainly in concert with him. The human 
singer alleged quite emphatically that his spiritual, 
aids rendered the air in the same language he did. 
The guitar took numerous trips around the room, 
sometimes high in the air, again touching those pres- 
ent on the head and different parts of the body. A 
huge tin trumpet was blown most furiously, the blast 
sounding like the greatest effort of the bass-horn. 
Then it was pounded and thumped, creating a most 
awful din. This was explained as being the doings 
of a very powerfully materialized spirit. The state- 



238 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

ment was acquiesced in by a skeptic, who received a 
vigorous whack on the knee, fully convincing him 
that muscle, lots of it, too, hacked the trumpet 

" A little music-box was taken from the table and 
wafted through the room, playing its peculiarly sweet 
airs all the time as it sailed toward the ceijing and 
over those about the table. It could be heard in 
every corner, high and low, and if a medium or friend 
was carrying it, said person must have been exceed- 
ingly lively, climbing over chairs, a bed, etc., without 
making any noise. It was claimed that when the box 
ran down it was wound up by those who took it 
through, the air. 

" Whenever songs were sung, or selections were 
played upon the instruments, soprano or bass voices 
joined in plain to all present. Members were deli- 
cately touched in the face and body. The tolling of 
a great bell was most cleverly imitated, and a little 
one was rung frequently. The spirits of loved ones 
were reported as standing at the sides of different 
members, some of whom were quickly recognized by 
the description given. Water was sprinkled on all, 
and the goblet filled with this fluid was passed around, 
touching some in the face, others on the body. No 
communications were received except very brief ones." 



SPIR T COMMUNICATIONS. 239 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

EXTRACTS FROM EACH OP TWO FUNERAL DISCOURSES BY 
BISHOP SIMPSON AND REV. W. H. THOMAS, D. D., WITH 
CONCLUSIONS OF C. G. HELLEBERG. 

In closing it has been deemed advisable and proper 
to append an extract from each of two funeral dis- 
courses delivered by two eminent divines — one the 
eminent Methodist Bishop,, Mr. Simpson, and the 
other a distinguished minister of Chicago, who, of 
late, experienced some little annoyance from his flock, 
who were mere sticklers for forms and creeds, and be- 
cause their shepherd had grown a little beyond their 
cramped and narrow limits. 

BISHOP SIMPSON. 

" The very grave itself is a passage into the beauti- 
ful and glorious. We have laid our friends in the 
grave, but they are around us. The little children 
that sat upon our knee, into whose eyes we looked 
with love, whose little hands have clasped our neck, 
on whose cheek w T e have imprinted the kiss, we can 
almost feel the throbbing of their hearts to-day. They 
have passed from us, but where are they? Just be- 
yong the line of the invisible. And the fathers and 
mothers who educated us, that directed and comforted 
us, where are they but just beyond the line of the'in- 
visible ? The associates of our lives that walked along 
life's pathway, those with whom we took sweet coun- 



240 SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 

sel and who dropped from our side, where are tliey 
but just beyond us? not far away; but now it may 
be very near us. Is there any thing to alarm us in 
this thought? No. It seems to me that sometimes 
when my head is on the pillow there come whispers 
as of joy that drop into my heart — thoughts of the 
sublime and beautiful and glorious, as though some 
angel's wing passed over my brow, and some dear one 
sat by my pillow and communed with my heart to 
raise my affections to the other and better world. The 
invisible is not dark, it is glorious. Sometimes the 
veil becomes so thin it seems to me that I can almost 
see the bright forms through it, and my bending ear 
can almost hear the voices of those who are singing 
their melodious strains. Oh, there is music all around 
us, though in the busy scenes of life we recognize it 
not. The veil of the future will soon be lifted and 
the invisible shall appear." 

REV. W. H. THOMAS, D. D., OF CHICAGO. 

"How can we linger over the bier of the departed 
and go in the eventide of their graves, and sit down 
in the stillness there, hoping in some way to come in 
communion with them. They carry their loves over 
to the other side, and is it unreasonable to suppose 
that a mother who has passed from these shores should 
still seek to be the guardian angel of the children she 
watched over in this life ? Is it unreasonable that the 
great hosts of life, column on column, world on world, 
that have gone out from this state, should seek to 
come with their higher wisdom and tenderer sympa- 
thy to minister to those they loved in this life, and 
help them to cling to the truth that saves ? To me 



SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS. 241 

this doctrine of the spirit life, the eminence and pres- 
ence of helping and guiding spirits is a comforting 
thought. It brings me into the presence of the in- 
numerable host that people the spirit land. It gives 
me somehow a consciousness of the great fact of im- 
mortality. It gives me a sweet consciousness that my 
friends live on the other shore; that to me they will 
come as ministering angels in the dying hour to re- 
ceive the spirit, tired by work, weakened by sickness, 
wearied with years, pale from death, and' bear it to 
the love and life above." 

If these utterances are not in harmony with spirit- 
ualism, and its central and prominent idea of the very 
nearness of our spirit friends and the spirit world, 
then I am wholly incapable of recognizing and under- 
standing the force -of plain and direct language. They 
can have but one meaning, and that in perfect ac- 
cordance with spiritualism. 

I find these extracts published in the Auburn Ad- 
vertiser, of New York, from which I copied them. 
There they are; read them carefully, and then pro- 
pound the question to your own heart and intelli- 
gence, namely: What does all this mean if spiritual- 
ism be false ? And if spiritualism be true, how can 
these men and those holding similar views, oppose 
spiritualism and be consistent and maintain their self- 
respect ? C. G-. Helleberg. 




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